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THE 

NATURAL & INnUSTRIAL 
RESOURCES HND RDVRRTRGES 

OF 

MARYLAND. 

BEING 

A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION 

OF ALL 

THE COUNTIES OF THE STATE 

AND THE 

CITY OF BAL.TI IS/1 ORE, 

Together with an Accurate Statement of their Soil, Climate, 
Antiquities. Raw and Manufactured Products, Agricultural 
and Horticultural Products, Textile Fabrics, Alimentary 
Products, Manufacturing Industries, Minerals and Ores, 
Mines and Mining, Native "Woods, Means of Trans- 
portation, Price of Land, Cheap Living, Ready- 
Markets, Excellent Homes, and the Material 
and Social Advantages and Unequaled 
opportunities Maryland possesses 
for those seeking Homes, and for 
Capitalists who -wish to in- 
vest in Industries that 
are sure to Pay big 
^ ^ Dividends. 

^ J 

By J. THOMAS SOHAEF, A. M., LL. D., 

Commissioner of tlie Land Office of Maryland, 

AuTHOH "HISTORY OF MARYLAND," &c., &c. 



ANNAPOLIS : 
C. H. BAUGHMAN & CO, 
State Printers. 
1892. 



f/m 



r v<S.V. 



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Copyrighted 1892. ' 

>y J. Thomas Schakf, A. M., LL.D. 

• 

ALL RIGHTS RESEllVED. 



MARYLAND'S 

RESDiircES and Advantages 



KOR 



TRADE AND POPULATION. 



Maryland people ought to be the most contented in the 
world. We have the best markets and the most accessible 
markets in the world. Commerce on land and sea is easy 
and rapid, and rates are low. We have the most diversified 
resources, the best variety of industries, and a gloriousness 
of opportunity that cannot be excelled. There is no place 
in the world where people can live better for less and live 
longer, if they take care of themselves. We have an unsur- 
passed equipment of churches, of schools, and of the ad- 
vantages of intelligent development. Better yet, we have a 
people whose courtesy and whose real moral and mental 
worth, united with a hospitality that is proverbial, make 
Maryland's society an achievement in civilization. 

We have been fortunate in every way. Our progress has 
never been forced. No epidemic of land booms has dam- 
aged our real estate. No wholesale incursion of nondescript 
elements has injured our population. The best part of our 
State's history is that which is to take place. The happiest 
and solidest era of our growth is that which is now begin- 
ning. The turbulence and extremes of some of the other 



States are emphasizing Maryland's blessedness, and direct- 
ing to it the hopes and desires of thousands of good people 
■who want homes in a place of plenty. 

We read of the cyojones and blizzards and droughts and 
grasshopper plagues, and kindred misfortunes which carry 
death and disaster to sections of the west We read of the 
floods and epidemics and vendettas which cause desolation 
and suffering in the south. We read of the cold and the 
barrenness which make i^ew England farm lands almost 
valueless, and we read of visitations which inflict other 
parts of the country, and add to the large stock of human 
want and unhappiness. But in Maryland we have a mini- 
mum of misfortune, and if 'we are not happy, it is our own 
fault. 

Crops in Maryland in 1891, have been uniformly good, 
prices have ruled high, manufacturing establishments have 
enjoyed exceptional advantages, and merchants have been 
enabled to carry on a large volume of trade with profitable 
returns. The assessed value of property in Maryland 
increased $32,604,697 during the year, and it has gone up 
from $459,000,000 to $510,000,000 since 1880. With this 
increase of tangible property has been a corresponding 
advancement in the productiveness of the State, as is shown 
by estimates and returns made from various sources. The 
oyster industry is doing well since the opening of the 
season, and indications point to a large catch. It is now 
conceded that the culling law is having a good effect upon 
the beds, and it is likely that oyster dredging and tonging 
may be kept up vigorously until the end of the season in 
April, and the estimates of the best observers put the year's 
catch at 11,000,000 bushels. 

Fishing for the year has been uniformly good. The 
catch of shad was enormous, and that of herring little 
behind it, while rock, bass, blue fish and other varieties 
afforded the fisherman a busy and profitable season. 



In agriculture results have been eminently satisfactory. 
The peach crop was unprecedeutedly large, and, owing to 
the excessive quantity of fruit and the exactions of the 
transportation companies, the farmers not only made 
nothing, but in many instances lost money on the best and 
most plentiful peach crop of recent years. Other fruits 
yielded well and brought fair prices; produce from the truck 
farms has moved rapidly to market, and there has met an 
active demand ; products for the canning factory were 
above the average in quantity, with the single exception of 
tomatoes, which were a short crop. The corn crop for the 
year may be estimated at 18,511,000 bushels, or nearly 
2,000,000 bushels more than last year. About 5,838,000 
bushels of wheat were harvested, nearly 500,000 less than 
the product of 1890. 

Foreign trade from the port of Baltimore has been 
unusually active. For 1891, the imports were $18,127,664 
in value, and exports were $79,217,082 in value — an increase 
of over $11,000,000 in both branches of the trade. Exports 
were largely corn and wheat, while imports were all the 
various commodities which go to make up the importation 
from foreign countries to America. In 1891, the number of 
foreign sail vessel entering the port of Baltimore were 214, 
and 620 steam vessels. 

In the iron trade, Maryland is also acquiring an important 
place. Several manufacturing plants are turning out high- 
class machinery, ships for merchant trade as well as the 
United States Navy, while the great plant at Spar- 
row's Point has grown perceptibly in every department 
during the past year. 

The coal trade in Western Maryland has more than held 
its own. Total shipments from the Cumberland coal region 
in 1891, were 4,537,954 tons; an increase of 531,863 over 
that shipped the year before, and an increase of 2,261,918 
tons shipped in 1881, or an increase of more than 100 per 
cent, during the past ten years. It is worthy of men- 



tion that some 60,000 tons of this amount came to tide-water 
over the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. 

Business at the Maryland quarries has been uniformly 
good throughout the year, Large contracts for building 
stone, blocks for bridges, and marble for various uses, have 
been placed in Maryland. The total product from the quar- 
ries is estimated at about 1,000,000 tons over that of 1890. 

Maryland occupies an exceptional position among the 
States of the Union. Midway between the two great sec- 
tions of the Atlantic Seaboard, the north and south, it par- 
takes, to some extent, of the characteristics of each, so that 
immigrants from either section have no sense of strangeness 
or isolation in settling in any portion of the State. Mary- 
land is not a small State. It is larger than any one of the 
New England States except Maine, it is five times the size 
of Delaware, considerably larger than New Jersey, and sizes 
up well with several of the Southern and Western States. 
The extreme length of the State from east to west is, 190 
miles, and greatest breadth, about 120 miles. Its gross area 
is, 12,210 square miles. Its total land surface is, 9,860 
square miles, and water surface, 2,350 square miles. 

According to the census of 1890, the total population of the 
State was 1,042,390, an increase of 11.49 per cent., or 107,758 
over the census of 1880. The last census also shows that we 
have in the State, 824,149 white persons, and 218,004 colored. 
Politically, Maryland has eight electoral votes, and is of 
equal importance as twenty-three other States, having an 
equal or greater number of electoral votes, while only 
twenty-one States have a larger representation. 

In point of wealth and population, also, Maryland is by 
no means last or least. According to the census of 1890, 
the assessed value of real and personal estate was $510,003,- 
077, and the amount of tax levied was |905,255.50, or 17| 
cents on each $100.00; lOJ cents of which was appropri- 
ated for the support of the public schools of the State. 



The education statistics of the State, show that we have 
2,236 schools, 3,967 teachers, 154,418 white pupils, 34,796 
colored pupils, or a total of 189,214 pupils in the State. The 
county schools number 2,089, with 2,723 teachers, 95,548 
white pupils, 27,908 colored pupils, or a total of 128,456 
pupils in the State. 

The Census Bureau for 1891, shows that the county in- 
debtedness for the whole State was, in 1880, $1,377,325.00, 
and in 1890 this debt had been reduced to $893,776. In 1880 
the per capita indebtedness was $1.47, but in 1890, this was 
reduced to 86 cents, or nearly one half, which was one of 
the largest reductions of total and per capita indebtedness 
made by any State in the Union, during the last decade. 

DEBT OF MARYLAND ON OCTOBER 1, 1891. 

6 per cents $ 500,000 Oa 

5 per cents 206,356 28 

3.65 per cents 3,000,000 00 

8 per cents 7,015,286 24 

Total funded debt |10,721,642 62 

Offset- 
Productive investments $3,126,470 00 

Sinking fund investments in 

cash 3,719,125 64 

6,845,595 64 

Net debt $3,876,046 88 

The $500,000, six per cents, in the above statement are 
the Treasury relief bonds of 1878, which were in the sink- 
ing fund on October 1st, 1891, cancelled, and which have 
since been destroyed. On the 6th of February, 1892, the 
financial officers of the State also destroyed $1,242,300 of 
the 3 per cent, bonds held by the State in the sinking fund. 



Maryland State taxes are levied only for public schools 
and to pay interest on certain funded debt, and to create a 
sinking fund for the same. The taxes were reduced in 1888 
from 18| to 17| cents on the |100. 

TAXES IN MARYLAND. 

Assessed Value of Property of the State. 



Counties and Baltimore City. 


Assessed Value of 

Property for State 

Levy in 1891. 


Amount of Levy for 
1891, at 17f cents 
on each $100.00. 


Allegany 


$16,082,934 

10,725,314 
276,408,052 

39,650,644 
2,037,800 
4,381,469 

15,885,655 

13,389,101 
3,322,016 
6,183,618 

23.139,041 
4,124,187 

12,137,015 
7,436,312 
7,759,640 
9,951,605 
9,005,217 
7,230,844 
2,831,924 
4,088,342 
8,634,056 

17,055,413 
4,065,605 
4,477,273 


$ 28,547 20 


Anne Arundel 


19,037 43 


Baltimore City 

Baltimore County 

Calvert 


490,624 29 

70,379 99 

3,617 09 


Caroline 


7,777 10 


Carroll 


28,197 05 


Cecil , 


23,765 65 


Charles 


5,896 57 


Dorchester 


10,975 91 


Frederick 


41,071 80 


Garrett , 

Harford 


7,320 43 
21,543 20 


Howard 

Kent • 


13,199 45 
13,773 41 


Montgomery 


17,664 08 


Prince George's 

Queen Anne's 

St. Mary's 


15,984 26 

12,834 74 

5,026 66 


Somerset 


7,256 81 


Talbot 

Washington 


15,325 43 
30,273 35 


Wicomico 


7,216 44 


Worcester 


7,947 16 






Totals 


$510,003,077 


$905,255 50 









RECAPITULATION. 

Amounts. 

Amount of levy for public school tax, at 10|c. on each $100 $535,503 25 

Amount of levy for defence redemption tax, at 5^c. on each $100. 280,501 70 

Amount of levy for treasury relief tax, at 1-J^c. on each $100. . . . 76,500 47 

Amountof levy for exchange loan of 1886 tax, at Jc. on each $100. 12,750 03 



Total ^$905,255 50 



The climate of Maryland is mild and free from prolonged 
extremes of heat and cold, the soil is naturally kind and 
fertile, and most of it easily tilled and adapted to a great 
variety of products, and in almost every county there is a 
considerable body of comparatively unimproved or ex- 
hausted lands which can be purchased at very low figures, 
and if properly cultivated would soon yield handsome re- 
turns. The great need of xVlaryland is a larger population 
in the agricultural districts. Ever since the war rural labor 
in, this State has been drifting towards the towns and cities, 
with the result that the farmer has been compelled to till 
his land with a smaller number of hands, and these less re- 
liable and industrious than in former years. In many of 
the tidewater counties, where the negro population was lar- 
ger than in other portions of the State, the abolition of slav- 
ery cast upon the community a large body of unemployed 
laborers, who have since either led an uncertain, precarious 
existence in their cabins in the woods and clearing, many of 
them working only when it was absolutely necessary, or 
when it suited their humor, or have flocked in search of 
easier, more remunerative work, or merely for diversion 
and excitement, to the already overcrowded cities. The 
result is, that in most of these counties, labor has become 
demoralized, and it is no longer possible for the average 
farmer to till properly considerable bodies of land. The 
tendency, therefore, is to break up large tracts into smaller 
holdings and to dispose of these at reasonable figures to 
thrifty immigrants, who will be enabled to work them prop- 
erly. This plan has been pursued with marked success in 
some portions of the State, notably on the Eastern Shore, 
where the old-fashioned plantations are being rapidly divided 
into small farms capable of being tilled in many cases by 
the new owner and his family, with, perhaps, the aid occa- 
sionally of hired help. It is this class of immigrants which 
intelligent Maryland farmers are most anxious to attract, 
for it is well understood that their efforts to improve their 



10 



newly acquired properties not only contribute to the genera! 
prosperity of the community, but enhance the money value 
of contiguous property. Such settlers, whatever section 
they may come from, are warmly welcomed in every por- 
tion of the State, and in every county will be sure to find 
their neighbors kind and hospitable. The advantages which 
an emigrant from the more thickly populated States of the 
North will find in Maryland over the Western States and 
Territories, are a mild climate, exemption from "blizzards," 
droughts and extremes of heat or cold, a naturally fertile 
soil, with lands in some portions of the State as cheap as in 
many Western localities, and all the comforts of a settled 
well-or>.ered community, with the conveniences of churches, 
stores and schools, and easy proximity to the national capi- 
tal and the great markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia and 
New York. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUiVTIES. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE SOIL, THE PEOPLE AND THE PRODUCTS 
—UNDEVELOPED RICHES— CHEAP LANDS AND COMFORT- 
ABLE HOMES FOR THRIFTY FARMERS. 

For convenience of reference the different counties are 
grouped into four sections, corresponding to the four geogra- 
phical districts of Central Maryland, Western Maryland, 
the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland, by which terms 
the different portions of the State are usually designated. 
The first of the series treats of the central portion of the 
State. Care has been taken in making up the descriptions 
of the different counties to avoid exaggeration, and to give 
a truthful picture of the actual condition of affairs. No 
attempt has been made to "boom" the State or any particu- 
lar locality, but the effort has been to furnish reliable infor- 
mation for persons who are considering the advisability of 
settling in Maryland, and who wish to know in advance 
what they may expect in this or that portion of the State. 



11 



There is always room for disappointment on the part of 
those who purchase lands without first carefully inspecting 
them, but there is probably a smaller risk to be incurred in 
Maryland than in most other States, especially the Far West, 
for the reason that there is comparatively little land in this 
State which is not capable of improvement, and what might 
be regarded as very poor land for some kinds of crops, 
would probably be found to be very productive of others. 
Lands in Maryland vary greatly in value, as they do every- 
where else, but the proportion of absolutely untillable land 
is small, and there is a great deal of land lying idle and 
unimproved or exhausted by overcultivation which, in the 
hands of a thrifty farmer, could soon be made to blossom 
like the rose. 

Maryland offers many inducements to immigrants. The 
mildness of the climate, the natural fertility of the soil, the 
t^ariety of products grown here, including the choicest fruits 
and vegetables, the abundance of fish and oysters in the 
Chesapeake and tributaries, and th^ diversified character of 
the scenery — ascending gradually from the level of the plains 
of the Eastern Shore through the intermediate stages of fine 
rolling country on the western side of the bay, to the beauti- 
ful uplands of Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties, 
and beyond these to the mountains and smiling valleys of 
Western Maryland — combine to make Maryland one of the 
most attractive States in the country. The State's resources 
present in great variety elements of prosperity which, if fully 
utilized, would support comfortably a much larger population. 
The oyster trade of the Chesapeake would alone be a mine of 
wealth if properly worked, and, as it is, provides profitable 
employment to thousands. The vast peach orchards of the 
Eastern Shore, and in Southern Maryland, and on the Blue 
Ridge Mountains in Western Maryland, have contributed 
large sums to the resources not only of the farmers, but of 
persons engaged in canning, and the coal fields of Western 
Maryland maintain a large army of miners. Marble and stone 
quarries, iron furnaces, copper mines, woolen and cotton fac- 



12 



tories, paper mills, oyster, fruit and vegetable canneries, silica 
mines, are in successful operation in different parts of the 
State, and mechanical industries are steadily multiplying. 

The mineral resources of Maryland, as shown by the cen- 
sus of 1890, are very considerable, and now that facilities 
for transportation are largely increased, the exploitation and 
developement of this sourcQ of wealth awaits only a wider 
extension of the knowledge of its existence and the return 
of a more hopeful spirit of business enterprise. The min- 
erals and mineral substances of industrial importance within 
the limits of the State, may be divided into two classes : (1) 
those which are at present mined, and are thus having their 
value and quantity subjected to the most practical of tests, 
and (2) those ores, minerals and mineral substances of in- 
dustrial importance and known occurrence which are not at 
present mined. To the former class belong the copper ores 
— purple copper, vitreous copper, (sulphide,) copper pyrites, 
malachite and black copper — found in Carroll, Frederick, 
Baltimore and Harford counties; the iron ores — chrome, 
hematite and limonite — found in Cecil, Montgomery, Balti- 
more, Harford, Howard, Allegany, Frederick, Carroll, Wash- 
ington, Prince George's, Anne Arundel, Worcester, Somer- 
set and Caroline counties; porcelain clay, found in Cecil, 
Anna Arundel, Harford and elsewhere; coal, of which it 
is hardly necessary to say more than that from 1842 to the 
end of 1890, as much as 60,000,000 tons had been conveyed 
from the Cumberland region to market; fire clay, in Alle- 
gany and Cecil counties; flagging stone in Frederick; gran- 
ite, in Cecil, Howard and Anne Arundel counties ; hydrau- 
lic lime-stone, in Allegany and Washington counties; mar 
ble, in several varieties, in Frederick, Baltimore and Carroll 
counties; marls, (green sand,) in Kent, Cecil and Prince 
George's counties; and shell marls at many places on the 
Eastern Shore, on the Choptank river in Talbot, and in 
Prince George's, Charles, St. Mary's and Calvert on the 
Western Shore; sandstone, extensively quarried in Mont- 



13 



gomerj and in Fredrick counties; serpentine, in Cecil, Bal- 
timore and Harford counties; roofing slate, in Frederick and 
Harford counties ; carbonate of zinc, in Carroll, and zinc 
blende, in Baltimore and Carroll counties. The foregoing 
minerals were being worked at the time the census report 
on the minerals of the United States was written, some of 
them on an extended scale. Of the minerals placed in the 
second class — such as occur, but so far as known are not at 
present mined— Cecil produces asbestus, lignite, French chalk, 
soapstone and emerald nickel; Carroll, silicate of zinc, co- 
balt ore, silicate of copper, gold, cobalt pyrites, magnetic 
iron ore; Baltimore, emery, asbestus, gelena, gold, black 
lead, molybdenite, magnetic iron ore; Frederick, native 
copper, galena ; Montgomery, gold, lignite, manganese 
ore, black oxide of manganese, French chalk, soap- 
stone ; Allegan}', clay, ironstone, blackband ore ; Anne 
Arundel, pyrites, soapstone, tripoli, (a large deposit 
from 5 to^30 feet thick;) Prince George's, lignite, 
pyrites; St. Mary's, gypsum. Calvert shares with Anna 
Arundel, the large deposit of tripoli mentioned above. 
This second list doubtless contains a number of minerals 
that demand only the application of some capital and i:|^ining 
experience to be made the basis of flourishing industries, and 
both lists promise favorably for Maryland's future mining 
interests. 

Maryland is peculiarly rich in having the best quality of 
vhite building marble in the world. There is a popular 
^ error extant to the effect that Vermont, Massachussets and 
the East have a monopoly of the marble building trade. This 
error was somewhat shaken when Baltimore was required to 
furnish 405 of the 555 feet in the Washington monument at 
the national capital, and again when Messrs. George Mann 
& Co. captured the contract for building the spires of St. 
Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the most imposing edifice 
of the kind in the country. 

The Beaver Dam Marble quarries at Cockeysville, Bal- 
timore county, are something wonderful, and give the 



14 



beholder an impression that the surrounding country for 
miles must rest upon one solid, glistening mass of white 
limestone. They seem to be absolutely inexhaustible, and 
when it is considered that they have been worked for the 
past fifty years they are practically so. During this period 
stone has been produced for 108 monolithic columns, weigh- 
ing 25 tons each, for the Capitol at Washington, and 
numerous large blocks for the Capitol, the Washington 
monument and other public and private buildings, beside 
the Cathedral towers. In some Baltimore buildings erected 
45 years ago, the perfect color and preservation of the stone 
shows its durability for the purpose for which it was used. 

The quarries are now sixty feet in depth and are worked 
over a surface of five acres. The larger of the two excava- 
tions has the appearance of a huge amphitheatre. Any size 
of stone required can be furnished in a single piece. In 
fact this was the only place in the country thaf could pro- 
duce the 28-foot monoliths for the Capitol, after all the rest 
of the quarries had been unsuccessfully tried. The stone 
here was in many instances gotten out in such large blocks 
that one of them was split into three pieces of the size needed. 
Quite recently an immense block was quarried, which con- 
tained 9,700 cubic feet, weighing 180 pounds to the foot, 
or 1,746,000 pounds in all. There is no machinery in the 
world capable of moving such a mass of stone. The pro- 
prietors confidently assert their capability to make a mono- 
lith of the dimensions of the celebrated Cleopatra's Needle. 
They suggest that if any enterprising American has an 
ambition to duplicate the needle in white native stone, 
which will have the advantage of durability not possessed 
by the original, the Beaver Dam can produce it. A 
peculiarity of the stone is its " life," which permits handling 
without breakage, and advantage over what is known as 
"dead" stone, not possessed by the product of Eastern 
quarries. 



15 



Besides white marble, Maryland is rich in possessing over 
a hundred other varieties and colors of marble. The Verde 
Antique or Green Serpentine marble quarried in Harford 
county, has no equal in the [Jnited States, for ornamental 
andrpolished v^'ork. 

The granite industry is a very large one in Maryland. 
According to the census of 1890, the output for that year 
amounted to 114,464,005, an increase of 179 per cent, in ten 
years. There are twenty-two firms in the State doing an 
extensive business quarrying granite, who employ about 
1,000 men. 

The Maryland granite is technically known by three 
names — Biotite granite, Biotite gneiss and Gabbo. The 
first is quarried extensively in Baltimore, Howard and 
Montgomery counties; the second in Cecil and Baltimore 
counties, and the last only in Baltimore county. All kinds 
are regarded as first-rate in quality, and all are sought after 
by builders in Baltimore and elsewhere, while a fair share is 
consumed annually in ornamental building and in supplying 
the endless demand for tombstones, fencing and curbing. 

The State has a great advantage over most other portions 
of the country in the temperate and salubrious character of 
its climate. While the heat and cold are sometimes intense, 
the extremes of weather are never of long duration, and 
there is probably a greater average of comfortable days in 
every year than in any other State. Relief from the "hot 
spells" in summer can be secured by a trip to the seashore 
or mountain, both of which are readily accessible from any 
portion of the State. There is an abundance of good water 
in all the counties. In the lowland counties borderino- on 
the Chesapeake and its tributaries, malarious diseases per- 
vail to some extent, but not more so than in other sections 
of the country where similar conditions exist. Closer til- 
lage and better drainage have resulted, in some of the tide- 
water counties, in marked improvement in this respect. 
With the exception of malarial complaints, which prevail 
at certain seasons almost everywhere, the entire State is 



16 



singularly exempt from diseases which are prevalent in 
other localities; while the freedom from destructive bliz- 
zards and extremes of heat or cold, to which other sections 
are exposed, greatly increases the comfort and safety of 
farm life in Maryland. 

The great Chesapeake Bay, which forms a vast natural 
basin into which flow the waters of many noble rivers, 
divides the State into two sections — the Eastern and 
Western Shores — of which the latter is much the greater, 
both in area and variety of resources. The Eastern 
^hore, however, from its advantages of location, having 
quick rail communication with Baltimore, Philadelphia and 
K^ew York, and unsurpassed facilities of transportation by 
water to Baltimore, and the adaptability of its soil to a 
great variety of products, has made rapid strides during the 
past two decades. Curiously enough, the oldest section of 
the State, Southern Maryland, which was the seat of the 
first settlement of Lord Baltimore, is the one which is the 
most backward in progress, owing mainly to the lack of 
transportation facilities. Lands are cheaper in Southern 
Maryland than elsewhere in the State, and this section 
probably oflfers greater inducements to immigrants of small 
means than any other portion of the State. The lands in 
most cases are exhausted by neglect, poor tillage, and lack 
of proper manuring, but are naturally fertile, and with a 
little care could doubtless be made to yield handsome 
returns. In all parts of Maryland, however, even in the 
most thickly settled portions, there is considerable unim- 
proved or poorly tilled land, which can be purchased 
at reasonable figures, and the immigrant would secure, 
in addition to the advantages of a mild and salubri- 
ous climate and proximity to market, the conveniences of 
ample school and church facilities within easy reach, and all 
those comforts of civilization which have to be created with 
infinite pains and labor on the unpeopled prairies of the 
West. 



17 



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18 



CITIES ATSID TO^?VNS. 

THE POPULATION OF THE THIRTY-THREE CITIES, TOWNS AND 
VILLAGES OF MARYLAND HAVING 1,000 OR MORE INHABI- 
TANTS IN THE ORDER OF THEIR RANK, IS AS FOLLOWS: 



Cities, Towns 
AND Villages. 



Baltimore City.. 
Cumberland. . . . 
Hagerstown. . . . 
Frederijck... .... 

Annapolis 

Cambridge 

Frostburg 

Havre de Grace. 

Easton 

Salisbury 

Westminster.. . . 
Cbestertown.. . . 
Sparrow Point. . 

Elkton 

Catonsville 

Laurel 

Port Deposit.. . . 
Pocomoke City. 

Rookvllle 

Crisfield 

VVesternport. . . . 

Hyattsville 

EllicottCity ... 

Snow Hill 

Belair 

St. Michael's 

Centreville 

Williamsport. . . 

Northeast 

Sharpsburg 

Cliesapeake City. 

Oxford ,. .". 

Oakland 



Counties. 



Allegany 

Washington 

Frederick 

Anne Arundel 

Dorchester 

Allegany... .^ 

Harford 

Talbot 

Wicomico 

Carroll 

Kent 

Baltimore 

Cecil 

Baltimore 

Prince George's 

Cecil 

Worcester 

Montgomery 

Somerset 

Allegany 

Prince George's 

Baltimore & Howard. 

Worcester 

Harford 

Talbot 

Queen Anne's 

Washington 

Cecil 

Washington , 

Cecil 

Talbot 

Garrett 



Population. 



1890. 



434,439 
12,729 
10,118 
8,193 
7,604 
4,192 
3,804 
3,244 
2,939 
2,905 
2,903 
2,632 
2,507 
2,318 
2,115 
1,984 
1,908 
1,866 
1,568 
1,565 
1,526 
1,609 
1,488 
1,483 
1,416 
1,329 
1,309 
1,277 
1,249 
1,163 
1,155 
1,135 
1,046 



332,313 
10,693 
6,627 
8,659 
6,642 
2 262 



2,816 
3,005 
2,581 
2,507 
2,359 



1,752 

1,712 

1,206 

1,950 

1,425 

688 

986 

1,468 

288 

1,784 

1,276 



1,175 

1,196 

1,503 

988 

1,260 

1,402 

689 

910 



Increase. 



Number. 



102,126 

2,036 

3,491 

«-466 

962 

1,930 

3,804 

428 

«66 

324 

396 

273 

2,507 

566 

403 

778 

«-42 

441 

880 

579 

58 

1,221 

*296 

207 

1,416 

154 

113 

*226 

261 

«97 

»247 

446 

136 



Per Ct. 



30.73 
19.04 
52.68 
«5.38 
14.48 
85.32 



15.20 
*2.20 
12.55 
15.80 
11.57 



32.31 

23.54 

64.51 

«2.15 

30.95 

127.91 

58.72 

3.95 

423.96 

«16.59 

16.22 



13.11 
9.45 

*15.04 
26.42 
»7.70 

*17.62 
64.73 
14.95 



* Decrease. 



19 



Population of [Tlaryland Iiy Congressional Districts. 



First. District 158,246 

Second District 182,8.S6 

Third District 174,806 



Fourth 13ist ict 187,844 

Fifth District ](ie,345 

Sixth District 172,268 



First District 158,246 

Caroline County 13,903 

Dorcliester County. . .24,843 

Kent County 17,471 

Queen Anne's County. 18,461 
Somerset County. . . .24,155 

Talbot County 19,736 

Wicomico County. . .19,930 
Worcester County. . .19,747 

Second District 182,886 

Carroll County 32,556 . 

Cecil County 25,851 

Harford County 28,993 

Baltimore County — 

District 2 4,561 

District 3 5,473 

District 4 4,479 

District 5 2,381 

District 6 2,285 

District 7 3,312 

District 8 5,957 

District 9 7,977 

District 10 2,838 

District 11 4,977 

District 12 17,279 

Baltimore City — 

Ward 22 23,338 

Ward21-Precinctl. 2,008 

Precinct 2 1,984 

Precinct 3 1,961 

Precinct 4 2,321 

Precinct 5 910 

Precinct 6 1,445 

Third District 174,806 

Baltimore City — 

Ward 1 22,162 

Ward 2 16,843 

Ward 3 15,762 

Ward 4 15,777 

Ward 5 15,809 

Ward 6 26,322 

Ward 7 25,083 

Ward 8 24,688 

Ward 9 12,360 

Fourth District 1 87,844 

Baltimore City — 

Ward 10 15,760 

Ward 11 15,700 

Ward 12 28,341 

Ward 13 14,601 

Ward 14 17,485 



Fourth District — Continued. 
Ward 15— Precinct 1. 1,223 

Precinct 2 1,721 

Precinct 3 1,816 

Precinct 4 1,560 

Precinct 5 1,675 

Precinct 8 1,489 

Precinct 9 1,622 

Ward 16— Precinct 2. 1,040 

Precinct 3 1,808 

Precinct 4 1,509 

Precinct 5 1,620 

Precinct 6 1,764 

Precinct 7 1,322 

Precinct 8 1,662 

Precinct 9 1,697 

Ward 18— Precinct 2. 1,687 

Precinct 3 1,869 

Precinct 4 5,254 

Precinct 5 2,237 

Precinct 6 2,011 

Precinct 7 3,741 

Precinct 8 5,327 

Precinct 9 2,651 

Ward 19 24,484 

Ward 20 23,168 

Fifth District 166,345 

Anne Arundel County.33, 914 

Calvert County 9,860 

Charles County 15,191 

Howard County 16,269 

Prince George's Co... 26,080 

St. Mary's County 15,819 

Balto. Co.— District 1.. 7.217 

District 13 4,173 

Balto City— Ward 15— 

Precinct 6 1,991 

Precinct 7 1,694 

Ward 16— Precinct 1. 1.828 

Ward 17 25,209 

Ward 18— Precinct 1. 1,675 
Ward 21— Precinct 7. 1,397 

Precinct 8 2,267 

Precinct 9 1,761 

Sixth District 172,263 

Allegany County 41,571 

Frederick County 49,512 

Garrett County 14,213 

Montgomery County. .27,185 
Washington County. .39,782 



20 



COUNTY TAX RATES IN MARYLAND. 



COUKTIES. 



Allegany , 

Aniie Arundel. . . , 
Baltimore City.. , 
Baltimore County 

Calvert , 

Caroline , 

Carroll 

Cecil 

Charles 

Dorchester , 

Frederick 

Garrett , 

Harford 

Howard 

Kent 

Montgomery 

Prince George's. . , 
Queen Anne's. . . 

Somerset 

St. Mary's 

Talbot , 

Washington , 

Wicomico 

Worcester 



1885. 


1886. 


1887. 


1888. 


1889. 


1890. 


.84i 


.81i 


.81i 


.82i 


■SH 


.9Bi 


.88 


1.07 


1.00 


1.14 


.89 


1.09 1 


1.60 


1.70 


1.60 


1.90 


1.90 


1.85 1 


.6U 


67 


.60 


.61 


.36 


.63 ' 


.90ifl 


1.21? 


•84* 


.86^T 


.871 


.92 


.81i 


Mi 


.911 


.mi 


.92i 


.92i 


.50 


.50 


.50 


.50 


.50 


.50 


.75 


.80 


.80 


1.00 


.67i 


.70 


1.00 


1.04 


.87 


.93 


.92 


.93 


.86^ 


.86i 


.86;!: 


.92i 


.85J 


.92i 1 


.65 


.65 


.68 


.65 


.70 


.62 


i.m 


1.03 


1.17 


1.10 


1.08 


.98 


.80 


1.00 


.74 


.82 


.75 


.87 


.61 


.65 


.61 


.62 


.60 


.76 


.88 


.90 


.86 


.91 


.88 


.88 


.861 


.89^ 


.89J 


.92i 


.92i 


Mi 


.80 


.74 


.78 


.90 


.95 


1.00 


l.OOJ 


.981 


.90 


.87 


.91 


.92 


1.02i 


.791 


.86i 


.98i 


.92 


1.20 


1.07 


.98 


.97 


1.00 


.97 


.93 


.65 


.73 


.70 


.73 


.73 


.83 


.87 


.87 


.74 


.75 


.86 


.78 


.8H 


.Sli 


.83 J 


.81i 


•97+ 


.77 


.68i 


.72 


. / 1 


.90 


.80 


.90 



.87i 
.81 
1.55 
.54 
.91 
.92J 
.50 
.63 
.88 
.92i 
.62 
.98 
.83 
.70 
.82 
.90i 
.80 
.93 
.95 
.90 
.83 
.78 
.75i 



Areas of the Counties of Maryland in Square Miles. 



Total 9, 860 

Allegany 477 Harford 422 

Anne Arundel 400 Howard 250 

Baltimore 622 Kent 315 

Baltimore City 28 Montgomery 508 

Calvert 218 Prince George's 480 

Caroline 315 ; Queen Anne's 352 

Carroll 426 St. Mary's 360 

Cecil 375 : Somerset 365 

Charles 460 Talbot 285 

Dorchester 610 i Washington 435 

Frederick 633 j Wicomico 369 

Garrett 680 Worcester 475 



21 



CEWTRAIi MARYLAND. 

BALTIMORE, HARFORD AND HOWARD COUNTIES AND 
THEIR RESOURCES. 

Central Maryland, or that section of the State which is in 
more immediate proximity to the City of Baltimore, com- 
prises the counties of Baltimore, Harford and Howard. 
This section is largely devoted to market-gardening and the 
raising of vegetables for the markets of Baltimore City and 
Washington, and for the canneries, of which there are a 
large number in Harford county. It is for the most part 
quite thickly settled, and in the front rank of flourishing 
agricultural communities. There are also a number of 
manufacturing industries in Baltimore and Ploward coun- 
ties. 

' BALTIMORE COUNTY. 

No county in Maryland has greater opportunities for de- 
velopment than Baltimore county, and no county is more 
indiiferent to her opportunities. Blessed by nature with an 
abundance of water and wood, with soils easily cultivated 
and capable of yielding ample harvests of all the cereals, 
vegetables and all the best fruits of temperate climates, it 
rests only with the inhabitants to advance their own inter- 
ests by adjusting themselves to the surrounding physical 
conditions. Two of the great areas of rain precipitation be- 
ing included within its limits, together with the mildness of 
the climate, give it almost unsurpassed advantages for sus- 
taining a healthy and flourishing population. It has an 
area of 622 square miles, and a population of 72,909, 
divided as follows: white, 62,540; colored, 10,369. The 
eoft, micaceous soils of the rolling uplands are covered by 
farms richly cultivated, and yield abundant crops of wheat 
and corn. On the ridges are forests of oak, hickory, chest- 
nut and maple. Numerous streams run through this sec- 



22 



tion. The waters are clear, and do good service in furnish- 
ing power to flour mills, which stand hid away in unsus- 
pected dells or hollows. 

VALLEYS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY. 

Valleys of surpassing loveliness may be seen in various 
parts of the county. The chief of these are Green Spring, 
Worthington, Dulany's, Long Green and the Great Central 
Basin. 

Dulany's Valley extends from the ridge north of Lake 
Roland to that three miles beyond the Gunpowder river, or 
a distance of ten miles. It varies in width, being not over 
a mile across in any part. It connects with other short val- 
leys on its northwest side, and thus appears immensely ex- 
panded at several points. In this valley is the large estate 
of Hampton and Glen Ellen. It is richly supplied with 
almost inexhaustible beds of the strongest limestone, yield- 
ing the best quality of burnt lime. 

Long Green Valley is a more abrupt depression between 
the chain of high hills, and narrower than any of the other 
large valleys. The Harford road passes through the whole 
length of the southeastern depression, and connects with 
roads running into other sections of the region, making 
every part of it readily accessible. On every hand pictur- 
esque farm-houses, with their groups of whitewashed out- 
houses, associated with fine orchards of peach, cherry and 
apple trees, greet the eye, contrasting finely with the dark 
soil of the hills, and testifying to the neatness and thrift of 
the people. The whole region is picturesque, attractive, 
well watered and most inviting as a place of summer resi- 
dence. It only needs a modern railroad to make it speedily 
accessible in order to draw a large population. 

The Green Spring Valley is a beautiful tract of country, 
running nearly west and east, and opening out ut the basin 



23 



of Lake Roland. It extends from near Owings' Mills to the 
latter, a distance of about seven miles, and is about two 
miles in its greatest breadth. Its name was derived from 
the numerous springs which bubble up in two small lakes 
near the head of its depression, situated in the midst of a 
tract remarkable for its rich verdure. The ridge on its 
north side rises by gradual stages from the basin adjoining 
the Northern Central Railroad, and rolls in lower, broad 
waves toward the head of the valley. On the south side a 
chain of hills rises m majestic beauty above the horizon. 
This ridge starts from near its opening with a high back, 
about three-quarters of a mile long, and is continued by six 
or seven others of less length, all crowned with tall trees, 
and flowing westward like the folds of a huge sea-serpent, 
until lost amid the domes at the head of the valley. Fine, 
large farms range on both sides and along the flanks of the 
hills, and many of the choice country seats of wealthy citi- 
zens of Baltimore lie half concealed behind the groves of 
trees which shut in the landscape. The soil varies from 
clay to loam, is well watered and yields abundant crops of 
cereals and fruits. The valley is in the midst of a rich 
grazing tract, containing numerous dairy farms, which pro- 
duce vast quantities of the richest milk and cream, and 
prove the importance of this district to Baltimore. 

Crossing the broad rise of Chestnut Ridge, upon which 
Reisterstown-is situated, and proceeding a short distance 
towards the east, Worthington Valley stretches out in a 
broad, oval depression, having a general northeast by south- 
west trend, of nearly five miles in width, and more in 
length. It is surrounded on all sides but one by moder- 
ately high, almost abruptly sloping hills, crowned with deep 
forests of every variety of green. The depression becomes 
gradually deeper as Western Run is approached, while 
several of its tributaries take rise along the flanks of the 
ridge on the southeast and west sides of the basin. A short 
swell of low limestone hills pushes into the valley from near 



24 



the middle of the southeast side, and contributes an element 
of variety to the view in that direction. The valley is 
underlaid by a sheet of white limestone of extraordinary 
purity and excellence, in which excavations have been car- 
ried to a depth of more than sixty feet, without reaching to 
the underlying rocks. N'ature has endowed this lovely val- 
ley with everything needed for the comfort of man. A 
deep, fertile soil spreads out all around; vegetable humus is 
washed down from the hills by every freshet; all the cereals 
grow in rich profusion; fruits of all t^ usual kinds are at 
home here; brooks ■cut their way through the meadows at 
frequent intervals, and two kinds of water for drinking run 
from the hills or swell up in the limestone wells. The 
woods are full of varieties of flowering shrubs and plants, 
and the ferns luxuriate in dense thickets upon every moist 
hillside or hollow, and form brakes in the damp corners of 
the meadows. This peaceful valley rests in the midst of a 
scene of quiet beauty, afi:brding pleasant prospects in all 
directions. It only needs a system of good roads to render 
it highly attrative to residents of the city who seek a place 
for health and repose. 

IN THE LIMESTONE BASIN. 

The Grreat Central Basin is the broad, open depression 
adjoining Cockeysville. It is a wide stretch of country, 
sloping inward from the rolling hills on the northwest and 
south, but itself rolling gently away towards the southeast 
and south, and connecting with smaller valleys in those 
directions. It is bounded by Chestnut Ridge on the left 
and Ashland Ridge on the right. It is a great limestone 
basin, scooped out of the archaean rocks, overlaid by iron- 
ore claj^s in depressions, and with quartz distributed 
throughout in their beds. It is both the center of the 
marble and agricultural interests. The Beaver Dam and 
other quarries yield inexhaustible supplies of choice white 
marble of varieus kinds, while the Texas belt supplies 



25 



immense quantities of valuable limestone. In and around 
the basin large farms of rich soil in a high state of cultiva- 
tion are numerous, and on the northwest side is situated the 
celebrated Hayfields, the prize stock farm of the county. 
All the cereals and fruits grow here in abundance, and the 
grazing farms supply the city with milk and butter. Situ- 
ated on the Northern Central Railroad, within three-quar- 
ters of an hour's ride from Baltimore, renders it quickly 
accessible, and it is rapidly tilling up with an active and in- 
telligent population. 

On the rolling hillsides and iu the river valleys, many of 
the finest and most valuable rural estates and farms of Mary- 
land are spread out, whose history runs back into the colo- 
nial period. Along the line of the JSTorthern Central Rail- 
road there are numerous busy towns. Distilleries, cotton 
duck mills, paper mills, quarries and various other indus- 
tries are in operation. 

CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS. 

The waters of the Chesapeake Bay wash the shores of the 
county from the Patapsco river northeast to the Gunpowder, 
and between these two rivers are numerous streams. The 
climate is mild, with an average temperature of about 56* 
Fahrenheit. The upper section of the county is remarkable 
for its salubrity of atmosphere and the healthfulness of its 
people. Besides the agricultural staples, great quantities of 
garden fruit and vegetables are grown for the city markets, 
and the yield of grapes and berries is a sources of much 
profit. The mineral deposits are valuable, and are exten- 
sively worked. Besides the varieties of fine building stone 
may be mentioned limestone, iron ore, pipe clay, chrome, 
manganese, ochre, an abundance of brick clay, beds of marl 
on the river and bay shores, and veins of copper. The 
shores of the Chesapeake and its estuaries on the southern 
and southeastern sides of the county, are largely used for 



26 



gunning and fishing grounds, where as good sport may be 
found as anywhere in the land. Excellent roads lead from 
the city down to these shores, which are owned or leased by 
clubs or individual sportsmen. The common school sj'stem 
of the county is in a flourishing condition, offering to all 
pupils the benefits of free education. There are institutions 
of learning in the county that have a world-wide reputation. 

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 

In the midst of a smiling landscape on Charles Street ave- 
nue, about half way between Baltimore and Towson, the 
county seat, are the spacious grounds and lofty trees sur- 
rounding an imposing structure — the Convent of Notre 
Dame — attached to which is the famous Notre Dame of 
Maryland, a collegiate institute for young ladies. It is ap- 
proached by a broad avenue. From the broad marble hall, 
up the wide stairs to drawing-rooms, study halls, music- 
rooms, chapel and dormitory, the twin goddesses of health 
and hygiene have fulfilled all the requirements. In an 
upper story, where the windows command a magnificent 
view of the Chesapeake Bay, are a dozen rooms, each one 
handsomely furnished. They are occupied by parlor board- 
ers, and are presided over in each department by a sister. 
Besides the regular curriculum, the scholars are given 
ample scope for proper physical development in calisthenics, 
boating, tennis, &c. 

Situated upon a high ridge just east of Catonsville, com- 
manding a view of an immense expanse of land and water, 
is Mount de Sales — the Academy of the Visitation — a school 
for young ladies, under the charge of the Sisters of the Visi- 
tation, which is known all over North America as one of 
the foremost educational institutions on this continent. Its 
walls and towers are visible from every point of the compass 
for miles. 



27 



The MeDonogh Institute, near McDonogh Station, on the 
Western Maryland Railroad, presents a beautiful front of 
two hundred and thirty-six feet. 

Woodstock College, under the direction of the Society of 
Jesus — a general house of study, embracing a thorough 
course of philosophy and theology — stands on a magnificeut 
eminence over the Patapsco, an hour's ride from Baltimore 
on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Over two hundred 
acres of land are attached to the college property. The 
buildings occupy a tine plateau surrounded by ornamental 
grounds, and contain two hundred rooms. The library 
occupies half of one of the wings, and contains over twenty 
thousand volumes of rare and valuable books, embracing 
complete sets of the Greek and Latin Fathers, and original 
parchment manuscripts of the Scriptures in the Hebrew lan- 
guage. The chapel is a gem of beauty, finished in the 
Roman style, with frescoes and pilasters. The altar rail is 
from a church in San Domingo, and is over three hundred 
years old. The college is one of the most important insti- 
tutions in America for the training of young men for the 
priesthood. 

Mount St. Agnes Academy, at Mount Washington, in 
charge of the Sisters of Mercy, is a stately edifice of marble 
and brick, crowning a lofty hill, and is devoted to the edu- 
cation of young ladies. 

Hannah More Academy, near Reisterstown, is another 
institution of learning. 

Amid the quiet loneliness of Lutherville, on the Northern 
Central Railroad, stands the Lutherville Female Seminary, 
an educational institution of a high order, under the direc- 
tion of the Lutheran Church. The seminary has, to some 
extent, assisted in promoting the growth of Lutherville, and 



28 



another agent is the eligibility of the place for suburban 
residences and summer boarding-houses. 

Mount St. Joseph's College, on the Frederick road, is an 
excellent school for boys. The tone of society in the beau- 
tiful valleys of the county, as well as in other sections, is 
highly refined. 

CHAKITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 

Among the institutions worthy of mention are: The 
Spring Grove Asylum for the Insane, situated near Catons- 
ville, a State institution; St. Agnes' Hospital, on Maiden 
Choice road; Hebrew Orphan Asjdum, at Calverton 
Heights; St. Mary's Female Orphan Asylum, Roland ave- 
nue; ]\Iount Hope Retreat, on the Western Maryland Rail- 
road, an institution for the care of the insane. This place 
is surrounded by a fine estate of more than three hundred 
acres, and is one of the most complete and magnificent edi- 
fices of the kind either in this country or in Europe. The 
Sheppard Asylum, near the county seat, is another magnifi- 
cent institution for the care of the insane. 

The county is not excelled by any other in the State in 
the numbers and architectural beauty of its churches. The 
most obscure hamlet has its houses of worship. The more 
ambitious towns and villages show numerous edifices, con- 
secrated to the service of God, and the elegance of many 
bears witness to the taste and prosperity of the people. The 
taxes are very low, the rate for the present year being but 
fifty-four cents. 

NATURAL PRODUCTS. 

Among the important industries in the county are the 
Beaver Dam quarries, near Cockeysville. These quarries 
furnished the huge monolithic columns for the Capitol at 



29 



Washington. The marble for the magnificent City Hall at 
Baltimore came from these quarries, as also has the material 
for scores of fine public buildings and thousands of stately 
private residences. In the vicinity of these quarries the 
Northern Central Railroad passes for nearly a mile between 
v^alls and over a bed of the best alum limestone. In this 
section a very extensive business in lime for building and 
fertilizing is done. 

Iron ore in the vicinity of Ashland is plentiful and of ex- 
cellent quality, and furnaces of an iron company have given 
employment to many persons in the neighborhood. The 
most extensive paper mills in the State are located in Balti- 
more county. 

jSTo city in the country has finer suburbs than those on 
the thoroughfares of the county leading to the City of Bal- 
timore, liumerous merchants of Baltimore City have their 
country residences on the Frederick road and in its vicinity. 
Catonsville is situated on this road six miles from Balti- 
more, and is connected with the city by a steam and horse 
railroad. Located upon an elevated plateau, five hundred 
and fifty feet above tidewater, surrounded by noble forests 
and highly cultivated estates, and drained by gentle slopes 
towards the Patapsco river south and west, and Gwynn's 
Falls north and east, it is one of the most healthful and 
beautiful villages in the State. It enjoys so great a reputa- 
tion for salubrity that it has been chosen as the site of four 
educational institutions. The scenery is charming, embrac- 
ing views of the city and Chesapeake Bay as far south as 
Annapolis, the dome of the State House being visible in a 
clear atmosphere. It has a population of 2,115, an increase 
of 23.54 per cent, over the census of 1880. 

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 

Wetheredville is a thriving village situated on Gwynn's 
Falls, five miles from the citj*. It is surrounded by bold 



30 



and romantic hill scenery, through which the stream rushes 
with impetuous force. Cotton and woollen factories give 
employment to many of the inhabitants. 

Granite, fourteen miles from Baltimore, is noted for its 
great granite quarries, from which a tirst class quality of 
building stone is obtained in inexhaustible quantity. 

Alberton is the seat of a heavy cotton manufacturing 
business. It extends on both sides of the Patapsco, eigh- 
teen miles from Baltimore, on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road. 

MAGNIFICENT RESIDENCES. 

Along the Liberty road, and a portion of the Western 
Maryland Railroad, is a region taken up with elegant resi- 
dences of wealthy citizens, and farther out is a succession of 
grand old homesteads and farms, whose broad and well- 
tilled acres yield luxuriantly of the fruits of the soil. A 
generous hospitality is exercised by the proprietors of these 
splendid estates. 

Mount Washington, situated on the Northern Central 
Railroad, five miles from Baltimore, and the vicinity, are in 
much demand for summer resorts. The surroundings are 
hilly and romantic. A flourishing cotton duck factory gives 
employment to several hundred persons. A mile north of 
the villao-e is a rich vein of copper. The copper mines there 
will, it is said, be put in operation in the near future. 

Nine miles distant from Baltimore, on the Northern Cent- 
ral Railroad, Lutherville, an exceedingly handsome town, 
is located. It occupies the side and crest of a hill overlook- 
ing the valley of Jones' Falls in one direction and Dulany's 
Valley in another, while the country about is dotted with 
small villages and the country residences of city merchants. 
To the south of Lutherville is Ruxton, a magnificent place 
for a summer resort. Cockeysville is a flourishing village 



31 

north of Lntherville. In this section are superb stock and 
grazing farms. 

That portion of the county immediately north of the city 
is covered with residences of more or less elegance, and 
a little farther out each side of the roads presents a succes- 
sion of suburban villages and cottages, and their grounds, 
many of which have exhausted the resources of the archi- 
tect, the landscape gardener and the decorator. Year after 
year this splendid territory is being still more elaborately 
beautified. It is impossible to compute the number of 
millions of dollars" of capital that are invested in it. The 
region has a steadily increasing elevation from tidewater to 
the hills of the Gunpowder river, and that stream and 
Jones' Falls, together with dozens of brooks fed from 
abundant springs, flow down from the elevations, topped 
with tasteful and imposing suburban mansions. This sec. 
tion is the home of rural ease, plenty and elegance, and 
contains the time-honored homesteads of the Ridgelys, of 
Hampton, the Gilmors, the Hillens, the Ilofl'mans, the Jeni- 
fers, and other old families. 

THE COUNTY SEAT. 

Towson is the county-seat, and is seven miles north 
of the city, on the York Turnpike and Baltimore and 
Lehigh Railroad. It has a flourishing population of 
about two thousand. Here are located the court-house, 
the county ofEces, the county jail, several hotels, churches 
and schools, and during terms of court and in times of 
political contests, farmers' gatherings, county meetings, 
&c.,\the town has a very lively appearance; while it is at 
all times the center of much activity. There are many 
handsome cottages and other residences in the town, 
and the taste of the people has led to the cultivation of 
attractive'gardens around their homes, so that in the proper 
season they are beautifully set off" with flowers and twinino- 



32 



plants. A considerable amount of capital is held in and 
around Towson, and the buildings show that a refined judg- 
ment has directed large expenditures. 

DOWN "the neck." 

An important section of the county lies to the east and 
northeast of Baltimore city. It is known as the Twelfth 
district. The lands stretching towards the numerous estu- 
aries of the Chesapeake are mainly devoted to truck raising 
which has proved much more profitable than the cultiva- 
tion of the cereals. The country is low, and is pierced in 
every direction by excellent roads, such as the Trappe road, 
the Old Trappe road, North Point road and Eastern avenue 
extended. Many of the roads are laid with oyster shells, 
which, pulverizing under the wheels of vehicles and hoofs 
of horses, form a bed of unsurpassed smoothness and solid- 
ity. What is more particularly known as the Shell road 
leads from the city to Back river, through charming scenery 
at the heads of the inlets to the bay. Public resorts are 
numerous along the road and on the shores, and the drive 
is a very popular one with the people of the city. The gun- 
ning and fishing grounds in this district are, perhaps, 
among sportsmen, the most famous in the United States. 
They are what are known as the "Necks," formed by the 
Patapsco, Middle, Back and Gunpowder rivers, where the 
streams make up for miles into the country, leaving tongues 
of land between. The water-fronts all through here and on 
the islands of the upper Chesapeake are owned or leased by 
yacht clubs, gunning clubs, fishing clubs, or private indi- 
viduals with a fancy for sport, and many of these associa- 
tions have erected cozy houses for the accommodation of 
their members. The late fall and the winter months are 
the season for duck shooting, and owing to the enforcement 
of excellent game laws, the supply of birds continues large. 
The ducks are attracted to these feeding-grounds by the 
abundance of valisneria, or wild celery, which grows on the 
flats near the shores. 



33 



CANTON. 



That section of the district contiguous to the eastern 
limits of the city is the home of a large population and the 
scene of important industries, especially in Canton and 
Highlaudtown. The property of the Canton Company ex- 
tends along the Patapsco river all the way down to Cole- 
gate's Creek on the river front, and thence across the neck 
to Back river. Upon it are located the immense grain 
transfer elevator of the Northern Central Railway Company, 
the marine terminus and wharves of the Union Railway 
Company, several large petroleum refineries, with their 
wharves and railroad connections, two whiskey distilleries, 
iron furnaces, chemical works and many smaller industries. 
The river front from Lazaretto Point to North Point, 
where the Patapsco empties into the Chesapeake Bay, forms 
the northern side of the entrance to the harbor of Balti- 
more, and from the low bluffs fifty miles of water are spread 
before the view, bearing on its bosom the commerce of a 
great seaport. Fort McHenry and the city frame the pic- 
ture on the north, on the west are the shores of Anne Arun- 
del; down to the northward and eastward the protrusion of 
North Point melts away into the vast expanse of the Chesa- 
peake, while the foreground is filled up with the gray walls 
and bastions of Fort Carroll and the innumerable fleet of 
all classes of vessels that are constantly arriving and depart- 
ing. 

Chesterwood, the grounds of the Free Excursion Society 
of Baltimore, is upon Bear Creek, five miles from the city. 
This noble charity provides during the summer free excur- 
sions for the poor of the city. 

The price of land in the upper, or agricultural, portions 
of the county is very low. Land in the Green Spring Val- 
ley can be bought for from $100 to $250 per acre. In- 
Catonsville it runs from $500 to $1,200 per acre, and the 
same along the York turnpike, Reisterstown pike, Roland 



34 



avenue and Harford road. Along the Philadelphia road 
land sells at from $40 to $100 per acre. Some of the most 
valuable and fashionable property near the city is located 
between the York and Falls turnpikes. Among the mag- 
nificent estates in this neighborhood is "Guilford," the 
property of the A. S. Abell estate. 

STEELTON. 

The great works of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, 
one of the most important industries in the State, are 
located at Steelton, a village of vigorous growth in the 
Twelfth district. It was begun in 1887, and has increased 
to such vast proportions that it will undoubtedly become 
One of the great industrial and commercial enterprises ever 
begun in the United States. The parent company, which 
was started at Steelton, Pa., in 1865, proved such a success 
that the plan of forming another plant near tidewater was 
deemed a wise and proper course. The city of Baltimore 
and its immediate vicinity seemed to show ereater advan- 
tages in the particular line desired than any other place 
along the coast or accessible to tidewater. Fred. W. Wood, 
the superintendent of the company, was sent to Baltimore 
during the winter of 1885, and made a careful inspection of 
all the properties along both sides of the Patapsco river. He 
finally fixed upon Sparrows' Point as the most desirable 
location for the extension, and after carefully investigating, 
the management subsequently fixed upon Mr. Wood's 
choice. Negotiations for securing the property were suc- 
cessfully conducted, and the deeds for Sparrows' Point, 
Holly Grove and the adjacent lands were turned over to the 
Pennsylvania Steel Company in March, 1887. Surveys of 
the property were made at once, the plans for the steel 
plant and town were made in the offices of the works at 
Steelton. A large force of engineers was employed to make 
surveys for a railroad line to connect this city with Spar- 
rows' Point, in order to facilitate the transport of manufac- 



35 



tured iron and steel over the railroad lines which centered 
here. Work was begun in earnest in April, 1887, under 
the direction of Rufas K. Wood, and now Steelton is the 
largest steel works along the Alantic coast. It is connected 
with the city of Baltimore by the Northern Central, Phila- 
delphia, Wilmington and Baltimore and Pennsylvania Rail- 
road at Orangeville, and by the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road at Colegate's Creek. The enterprising company have 
erected on their property several immense furnaces for the 
manufacture of Bessemer steel, an immense stock house, a 
vast number of boiler and engine houses, rolling mills, pat- 
tern shops, machine shops, pumphouses, ship yard, docks, 
piers, &c. The company has also laid out and built upon a 
systematic plan a model town for the employees and their 
families. The company owns 1,000 acres, and a portion of 
them has been platted in blocks, and streets of 60 feet 
width, crossing each other at right angles, which, with 
10-foot sidewalks, leaves a space of 80 feet between the 
houses on opposite sides. A thorough system of under- 
ground drainage has been made, and water is conducted in 
iron pipes to all the dwellings. The town and the works 
are lighted by electricity. The residences of the officers 
and the cottages of the workmen are built of frame on 
pretty modern architectural designs. Several hundred 
houses have been finished, and many more are in course ot 
construction. The population is about 2,500, and the pay- 
rolls now number about 2,000 people. 

Catholic, Methodist Episcopal and Protestant, and Epis- 
copal churches have been built on ground donated by the 
company. There is also proper provision made for the edu- 
cation of the young in the town. 

The growth of Steelton has been such that it is believed 
in ten years the company will have 25,000 people residing 
on their property. At the same time it is estimated the 
place will have eight piers, with steamships unloading 



36 



thousands of tons of ore daily. The specialties manufac- 
tured are to be boiler plate, ships' plates and railroad iron. 
Sparrow Point will produce everything entering into the 
manufacture of ships at low cost. There w^ill be plenty of 
steel for ships and coast defences. The building of steel 
ships and ironclads, with their naachinery and equipments, 
will give ample employment to the Sparrow Point works, 
and it is believed will advance Baltimore in the line of ship- 
building. It is proposed to use foreign ores largely at the 
Sparrow Point furnaces. They will come from Cuba, Spain, 
Island of Elba and many Mediterranean localities. The 
outlook is most encouraging, and the community is to be con- 
gratulated in the establishment of such an industry in the 
immediate locality of Baltimore. 

HARFORD COUNTY. 

Harford county, situated near the headwaters of the Ches- 
apeake Bay, with the Pennsylvania line on the north, the 
Susquehanna Kiver and Chesapeake Bay on the east, Ches- 
apeake Bay on the south, and Baltimore county on the 
west, contains 422 square miles of territory, and according 
to the census of 1890, 28,993 inhabitants, divided as follows: 
white, 22,416; colored, 6,577. The population of the City 
of Havre de Grace, the largest place in the county, is 3,244, 
an increase of 428 since 1880, or more than fifteen per cent. 
The population of Belair is 1,416. 

The soil varies from light loam to heavy claj^, and is 
easily improved and very productive. The land is for the 
most part arable and undulating, and highly improved. For 
forming purposes the price varies from ten to a hundred 
dollars per acre. The chief products are corn, wheat, oats, 
hay, tomatoes and small fruits and vegetables. Stock- 
raising and grazing and the making and sale of butter and 
milk are growing industries. Since the opening of the 
Maryland Central Railroad, a few years ago, from the Bal- 



37 



timore county to the State line — a distance of 25 miles — the 
development of the milk trade has been very rapid. Over 
this road are now shipped 1,500 gallons of milk daily. 
Most of the farmers are industrious and thrifty. As a re- 
sult they have improved their stock of horses, cattle, sheep, 
and swine by crossing with the best strains of each, and now 
use labor-saving machinery of the most approved patterns. 

INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTS. 

The canning industry is extensive and profitable. The 
number of packing houses now in operation is estimated at 
four hundred. Many of them begin with the early fruits 
and vegetables in the spring, and close only with the rem- 
nants of corn and tomatoes left by the early frosts. The 
entire pack of fruits and vegetables in a prosperous year 
aggregates near a million cases. 

The manufacture of flour, fertilizers, feed and carriages 
is not extensive, but suflicient for the wants of the county, 
with a margin for export. There is a large paper factory 
on the Susquehanna River, near Darlington, that is highly 
remunerative. Other manufacturing enterprises are invited 
by the abundant water power of the Susquehanna River, 
Deer creek, the Little Gunpowder, Bynum's and Winter's 
run and other streams of pure water that traverse the county. 

The estimated annual amount of the general mercantile 
business transacted in the larger towns gives to Abingdon, 
$15,000; Aberdeen, $75,0(i0; Bel Air,^ $500,000; Church- 
ville, $30,000; Darlington, $35,000; Dublin, $20,000; Falls- 
ton, $80,000; Forest Ilill, $35,000; Havre de Grace, $1,000,- 
000; Jarrettsville, $10,000; Level, $20,000; Norrisville, 
$10,000, "and Ferryman's, $60,000. Other towns would 
swell the aggregate to two million dollars. 

DUCK SHOOTING AT HAVRE DE GRACE. 

There is no place in the country like the City of Havre 
de Grace, in Harford county, for duck shooting. All the 



38 



ducks found in the waters near Havre de Grace are better 
and bring higher prices than those from anywhere else* 
This fact is due to their feeding on wild celery in fresh 
water. The Susquehanna flats, below Havre de Grace, but 
nearly opposite the city, cover an area of about fifteen square 
miles, with an average depth of 'about four feet of water. 
There are vast beds of the tender, juicy wild celery on the 
bottom of the Susquehanna flats. Every high river brings 
down the necessary fertilizers from the rich lands above, 
which are caught by the tide and settle on this bottom. 
When winter sets in early in the far North, the ducks put 
in an appearance about the middle of October. The blue- 
winged teal are the first ducks to visit the flats, then come 
the bald-pate and black ducks, followed by the sprig-tails 
or gray ducks, as they are called by the native shooters. 
Later on the red and black-head ducks come in quantities, 
followed by the canvas-backs, which reach their greatest 
number about November 15. 

The game laws passed by the Maryland Legislature are 
very strict, and have proven a great protection to the ducks. 
They now have a chance to settle on the flats, and get 
plump and in good condition before the shooting begins. 
The season, as regulated by law, now opens November 1 
and ends March 31, and prohibits shooting at any other 
time except from shore. When the shooting is good car- 
loads of ducks are shipped to New York, Philadelphia and 
other Eastern cities. Hundreds of dozens of the delicate 
game are also sent West aud South, and large quantities 
are often shipped to Europe. It is claimed that more ducks 
are eaten in Baltimore than in any other city in the United 
States. 

There are few counties that possess superior transporta- 
tion facilities to those of Harford. Bush, Gunpowder and 
the Susquehanna Rivers and the Tide-water Canal are ac- 
cessible to neary one-half of the inhabitants, and the Penu- 



39 



sylvania, Northern Central, Baltimore and Ohio, and Mary- 
land Central Railroads accommodate the other half. The 
projected road from Bel Air to the Susquehanna River, 
when completed, will furnish all the facilities desired. 
During the last twenty years there has been a marked 
improvement in the farms and buildings, and the wealth 
and comforts of the inhabitants — attractions that catch the 
ey£ of strangers and cause many of them to remain in the 
county, which is regarded as one of the most progressive 
and prosperous in the State. 

HO^ATARD COUNTY, 

Howard, the most southern of the central Maryland coun- 
ties, and next to Calvert, the smallest county in the State, 
is bounded on the north by Frederick, Carroll and Balti- 
more counties, on the east by Anne Arundel and Prince 
George's, on the south b}' Montgomery, and on the west by 
Frederick. The area is 250 square miles, and according to 
the census of 1890, the population was 16,269, divided as 
follows: white, 12,096; colored, 4,173. 

Howard is one of the best adapted counties in the State 
for agricultural and manufacturing industries. The soil is 
mostly fertile and kind, easily cultivated and readily 
improved. Much of it is a loam, with clay sub-soil, and in 
a portion of the county there is an abundance of limestone 
land, that part of it known as "Limestone Valley" being 
particularly noted for its great natural beauty and fertility. 
In the southern section mica has been found, and in recent 
years some of the mines have been worked to advantage. 
The land is all valuable, and commands a ready sale at 
good prices, ranging in the improved portions and where 
the transportation facilities are good, from $40 to $100 per 
acre. Wheat, corn, hay and potatoes are chiefly the pres- 
ent products. In some parts of the county the land is sus- 
ceptible of tobacco raising, especially in the northwestern 



40 



portion, where the attention of many of the farmers has 
been given to its cultivation for some time past, and as 
most of them are supplied with all the necessary buildings 
and appliances for curing, &e., a profitable return has been 
the result. The raising of fruits and vegetables is receiving 
considerable attention in some sections, and much of the 
once idle land is now being utilized for this purpose. In 
view of the easy transportation and small expense required 
to place them in our best markets, there is every reason to 
prophesy for them a leading position among the industries 
of this section. All along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
and bordering upon the Patapsco River, are many acres of 
land, which, owing to its natural condition and adaptabil- 
ity of its soil, could, according to the statements of experi- 
enced grape raisers, be converted into a succession of vine- 
yards, which v.'ould yield a handsome profit. The county's 
healthful climate, excellent water-power advantages, and 
the natural productiveness of its soil, render it one of the 
most desirable and promising counties in the State for in- 
dustrious, energetic immigrants. There is, perhaps, no 
county possessed of better transportation facilities than 
Howard. It is bounded for many miles both by the Main 
Stem and the "Washington Branch of the Baltimore and 
Ohio Raih'oad, with stations every few miles along both 
lines, with, as a rule, good county roads leading thereto. 
The Baltimore and Frederick turnpike passes entirely 
through the countj'^ from east to west, and, together with 
the Ellicott City and Clarksville turnpike, aftbrds to the 
residents of the interior sections an easy outlet to Baltimore 
and Ellicott City. The C. A. Gambrill Manufacturing 
Company's flour mill at Ellicott City offers to the farmers 
a ready market for their wheat, which would otherwise 
necessitate its being shipped by rail or an additional drive 
of ten miles to the Baltimore market. The county com- 
missioners are liberal in their appropriations for roads and 
bridges, and, as a consequence, they are kept in good con- 
dition. 



41 



The people, too, are strong believers in good roads, and 
in addition to the two principal turnpikes already men- 
tioned, private enterprise has built several short lines of 
pike in different sections of the county. The farmers are 
progressive in their agricultural methods, and every im- 
provement in farming machinery is at once adopted. All 
the labor-saving implements which experience has proved 
to be valuable are in use, the best fertilizers are procured, 
and the system *f farming which tends to the permanent 
improvement of the soil, is pursued. Much interest is 
taken in the raising of pure bred stock, and many farms 
are already noted for celebrated strains of both horses and 
cattle. Along the line of the railroad are many well-con- 
ducted dairy farms, the milk from which is daily shipped 
to the Baltimore market. Throughout Howard county are 
many thriving villages, all of which are well supplied with 
churches and schools. Being almost surrounded by the 
Patapsco and Batuxent Rivers, whose water power is 
peculiarly adapted for mills and factories, it has for its ex- 
tent greater manufacturing facilities than almost any of its 
sister counties. 

Besides a large number of minor mills on the different 
water courses in the interior of the county for the manufac- 
ture of flour, corn meal, &c., there is the well-known paper 
mill of John A. Dushane & Co., with over forty operatives 
and a capacity of five tons of paper per day; the extensive 
cotton mills at Alberton and Savage, each with a force of 
400 hands, and owned respectively by James A. Gary & Co. 
and Wm. H. Baldwin, Jr.; the Guilford Cotton Mill, and 
the Electric Light Company's shops at Elkridge. There 
are many other points on the Patapsco that might be 
brought into profitable use by a little outside capital, com- 
bined with energetic effort on the part of the more enter- 
prising citizen. 

Howard's educational facilities are exceptionally good, 
there being, in addition to the well-conducted system of 



42 

free public schools, in Ellicott City alone, three large private 
institutions with well-deserved reputation. A large volume of 
mercantile business is transacted in the different towns and 
villages of the county, that of Ellicott City alone being esti- 
mated at over $1,000,000. The population of this thriving 
place is 1,488. 

A new line of railroad has long been in contemplation to 
run through the western section of the county, for which a 
survey was made by the Baltimore, Cincinnati and Western 
Railway Company in 1881, but the enterprise has so far been 
a failure, and the products of a considerable acreage are still 
conveyed to market by horse and wagon. 

A national bank has recently been established at Ellicott 
Cit}^, with which many of the leading citizens are connected, 
and which is looked upon as an indispensable auxiliary in pro- 
moting the various industrial interests of the community. 
Since its establishment new life seems to have sprung up in 
business of every kind, and its great advantage is now gener- 
ally conceded. 



WESTERN MARYtABfD. 

THE MINING REGION OP THE STATE— A FERTILE AGRICUL- 
TURAL SECTION. 

"Western Maryland presents a greater variety of resources 
than any other section of the State. Its surface is broken by 
mountain ranges, which divide it into charming valleys, with 
fine, undulating stretches of country at the base of the moun- 
tains, affording unsurpassed agricultural lands, besides exten- 
sive deposits in the mountains, of coal and iron. The bitu- 
minous coal of the George's Creek region is a vast source of 
wealth, and gives employment to many thousands of miners, 
whose labor has built up a number of thriving towns and vil- 



43 



lages. The counties of Western Maryland are Allegany, 
Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Montgomery and Washington. 

ALLEGANY COUNTY. 

Allegany county is located in tlie extreme western portion 
of the State, just south of the Pennsylvania line, with Wash- 
ington county, Maryland, on the east, Garrett county on the 
west, and the Potomac river, separating it from West Virginia, 
on the south. The population, according to the census of 
1890, was 41,571, divided as follows : White, 40,096 ; colored, 
1,470. Since 1880, the population of Allegany county has in- 
creased 3,559 or 9.36 per cent. Its area is 477 square miles. 

The coal fields in the western portion of the county, and 
extending twenty miles in one direction and five in another, 
are the chief feature and source of wealth. There is a good 
proportion of farming and rich timber land, many of the 
farms being quite productive. The soil is sandy loam along 
the streams, and in the mountain regions limestone, slate and 
sand, mixed with loam. There is a large territory covered 
with forest, especially in the eastern portion. The prices of 
cleared land range from $10 to $50 per acre, but there is much 
undeveloped mountain land which can be bought as low as $2 
per acre. The chief products are corn, rye, oats, potatoes, 
with some buckwheat, hay, wool, butter, and a fair proportion 
of fruits. There is a considerable trade in lumber and tan 
bark. In recent years there has been much improvement in 
farming machinery. Some fine stock is raised, but not nearly 
to the extent possible, as much of the land is well adapted for 
grazing. The fruit cultivation could also be largely increased 
the eastern slope offering good chances for grape culture. If 
the large tracts of undeveloped timber land were divided up and 
sold, there would be a chance for industrious immigrants to 
start profitable farming. There has been some move in this 
<iirection of late. Much of this undeveloped land is owned 
by non-residents. 



44: 



VOUMBERLAND. 

Cumberland, which is situated at the confluence of the north 
branch of the Potomac, with a considerable stream known as 
Wills Creek, is called the "Queen City." Like another Mary- 
land town made famous in song, it is "Green-walled by the 
Hills," or, rather, mountains of the Allegany range. These 
great walls seem at first glance to cut off the city from the 
world, but inquiry discovers the fact that few cities are so 
thoroughly equipped with transportation facilities as tliis, the 
county seat of Allegany county and the metropolis of "Western 
Maryland. It is on the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Road. The Pittsburg and Connellsville Railway joins it to 
Pittsburg. A branch of the Pennsylvania system connects it 
with that great highway at Huntington, Pa. The present 
terminus of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Rail- 
way is at Cumberland, but it has in contemplation the build- 
ing of an extension to tidewater at Baltimore. The Cum- 
berland and Pennsylvania Railway runs from it through 
the Cumberland coal region to Piedmont, W. Ya. The 
George's Creek and Cumberland Railway taps the same coal 
field for its benefit, and other mines are made tributary to it 
by the Eckhart branch of the Cumberland and Pennsylvania 
Railway. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which com- 
mences at Cumberland and terminates 184 miles east of this 
city, has been restored as a waterway. For local transporta- 
tion, Cumberland has also great facilities, being on the line of 
the great national turnpike and other well-kept roads. 

The population of Cumberland, according to the census of 
1890, was 12,729, an increase of 2,036, or 19.04 per cent, since 
1880. It is expected the population of Cumberland will be 
largely increased, when the Baltimore and Ohio people carry 
into effect a plan they have determined on and 

CONCENTRATE THEIR REPAIR SHOPS 

at that point. The arrangements have been made to remove 



45 



to Cumberland the shops of the Second, Third and Pittsburg 
divisions. This will add 1,000 mechanics and their families, 
say from 4,000 to 5,000 people to the population of the city. 

Cumberland is situated in the heart of the greatest bitumi- 
nous coal region in the world, dominates a section exhaustless 
in raw materials and as already shown possesses magnificent 
transportation facilities. The city has given its name to the 
coal obtained from this district, a coal whose excellence is 
undisputed in the mechanical world. It is a semi-bituminous 
carbon, almost wholly free from sulphur and devoid of other 
impurities. In burning, it yields an intense steady heat. 
Experiments have established that a ton of this coal will yield 
more heat than a ton and a quarter of any other coal. Hence, 
its desirability for manufacturing purposes. This coal is laid 
down in Cumberland for $1.30 per ton. Cumberland, there- 
fore, offers the manufacturer the best of coal at the cheapest 
price, that is as compared with the cost of fuel at other indus- 
trial centres. But in Cumberland, the coals from West Yir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania can be purchased for still less money. 
As for coke, it may be had cheaply from Connellsville, which 
is on the main line between Pittsburg and Cumberland, or 
from the Pennsylvania ovens, many of which are nearer to 
Cumberland than Connellsville, or from the ovens along the 
lines of the "West Virginia Central and Baltimore and Ohio 
Roads. Charcoal is also to be had in abundance and at slight 
cost. So much for one of the piincipal elements in the suc- 
cessful manufacture of iron. 

The next most important, the iron ore itself, is laid down in 
Cumberland most cheaply. Within easy distance are the iron 
mines of Pennsylvania, and still nearer, the new ore beds of 
Moorefield, AV. Ya., which are said to contain 43 per cent, of 
iron and to be free from silica. 



46 



THE WEST VIRGINIA CENTRAL AND PITTSBURG RAILWAY 

passes through the Elk Garden and Upper Potomac coal regions 
in which mines are rapidly being opened. Since 1881, nearly 
a score of thriving villages have been built along this road and 
an industrial population of at least 10,000 induced to settle 
there. Another factor in the cheap production of Iron, lime 
suitable for fluxing, is abundant in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, where also are many beds of fire-clay. 

These resources have not been allowed to remain altogether 
dormant. The Crown and Cumberland Steel "Works, near the 
main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, were built by 
local capitalists in 1872. The manufacture of tools and spring 
steel of superior quality is an extensive part of this business. 
The iron is procured in bar form and melted. Rollers 
of various sizes and an enormous steel hammer, with a striking 
force of five tons, are included in the equipment of the works. 
The peculiar qualities already noted of the Cumberland coal 
render it of especial value in the making of steel. About 
seventy men are employed by this company. The capacity of 
the works is ten tons of steel daily. 

The Cumberland Rolling Mills are the most important 
works in the city and the largest of the kind in the State. 
These mills were built in 1867, by the Baltimore and Ohio road 
upon forty acres of land donated to them for the purpose by 
the city. Just now they are operated under lease by the Cam- 
bria Iron Company which uses the product to supplement that 
of the great Grantier Works at Johnstown, Pa. At present 
about a thousand men are being employed at these mills, but 
this force will be greatly increased so soon as the extensive 
additions now being made to the mills are completed. 

In addition to the mineral wealth stored beneath their sur- 
face, the hills and mountains of this region bear a large and 
valuable supply of timber. Every railroad running westward 



47 

from Cumberland lias opened to this market a valuable tract 
of timber land. Both in lumber and bark, Cumberland has 
long done an extensive business. The tanneries located here 
produce leather of national reputation for uniformity of grain 
and texture and superiority of finish. There is a splendid 
supply of hard and soft woods convenient to the city and of 
superior quality. 

The new region which has recently been opened up by the 
West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Eailway, presents great 
opportunities to the capitalists and manufacturer in wood who 
may decide to locate in Cumberland. This line of road runs 
from this city through a district of West Virginia which 
abounds in 

THE FINEST KIND OF LUMBER 

of almost every description — white and yellow pine, spruce, 
hemlock and the hard woods, such as oak, maple, cherry 
walnut, &c. Great quantities of lumber are being shipped 
daily over this new road, which is steadily extending its rails 
into the vast timber forests of the State. From the extensive 
white spruce forests along this road large quantities of pulp wood 
are daily being shipped to Cumberland to supply a twelve-ton 
paper mill just completed. In conjunction with this advance 
the road has been building mammoth sawmills at easy dis- 
tances. As a result there are many lumber and furniture 
mills established in Cumberland. The furniture produced is of 
substantial quality and finish. Still there is room in Cumber- 
land for many more factories of a similar kind. A kindred 
industry in Cumberland is the cutting on the mountains of 
laurel and briar roots, from which the best of wooden pipes 
are manufactured and for which good prices are paid by 
Eastern manufactures. A pipe factory on the spot would 
probably be a good investment. One thing that should not be 
forgotten in discussing the industrial advantages of Cumber- 



48 

land is that labor is plentiful and cheap, owing to the low- 
rents and moderate cost of living. The outside pay for day 
laborers is $1.25, yet on this the men manage to live more 
' comfortable than they would on double the money in ]^ew 
York. 

The industries of the city and county now established 
employ men principally, and there are but few factories open 
to women or boys. Consequently this class of light labor is 
unemployed to a greater extent than in the North, and there is 
a good opportunity for the establishment of mills employing 
help of this kind, which, though of a higher grade in point 
of education and intelligence than the same class of operators 
in the North, can yet be had more cheaply. 

In the manufacture of hydraulic cement Cumberland holds 
second place in the world and first place in America. The 
Cumberland cement is produced at less cost than it can be 
manufactured anywhere else the world over. The supply of 
"Lower Ilelderburg" and other limestones from which the 
cement is made, is found in the suburbs of the city and seems 
inexhaustible. The stone is excellent quality, analyzing less 
than 3 per cent, of silica. The cement rock has been 
quarried for over thirty years by the Cumberland Hydraulic 
Cement Manufacturing Company. The cement produced is 
noted for the energy of its action, and will bear a greater 
admixture of sand than any other natural cement now in 
use. About one hundred and twenty men are employed by 
this company. 

Another important industry in Cumberland is glass- making. 
The Cumberland Glass Works were established in 1883, by a 
number of practical workmen through the aid of the city's 
Committee on Manufactures. The works are devoted entirely 
to the manufacture of blown glassware, tumblers, glasses, bar 
and table supplies. Four hundred thousand dozen glasses were 



49 



turned out by the company in 1891, and they found a ready 
sale. About one hundred and tliirty men constitute the pres- 
ent working force of tlie ^orks. 

The F. Morten's Sons' glass factory manufactures bottles of 
•every description, filling orders for bottles of any size, color 
or shape. This factory covers two acres of ground and gives 
employment to about two hundred and fifty men. The ca- 
pacity of the factory is twenty-four pots, and the present out- 
put is upward of three hundred gross of bottles daily. 

Among the other interests of this firm in Cumberland are a 
planing-mill, a sash and blind factory and a vast lumber-yard, 
in which a million and a quarter feet of lumber is kept stored. 

To return to Cumberland's mineral resources. Within the 
•coal measures of the Cumberland coal field there are e'lQ-ht 
veins of pure fire clay, having an aggregate thickness of 53 
feet 7 inches, besides other deposits in the adjoining counties 
of Pennsylvania. There are already several fire-brick factor- 
ies in this section, which turn out a superior fire brick. Yet 
so great is the supply of clay that other similar factories would 
be welcomed. 

There are several varieties of sandstone suitable for buildinor 
purposes quarried in and around the city. Of these the yel- 
low Oriskany sandstone and the pure white Medina sandstone 
are the cheapest and most suitable for building purposes. 
There are several other deposits adapted to the manufacture of 
glass. In the immediate vicinity of Cumberland there are 
beds of potter's clay and clay suitable for the manufacture of 
drain-pipe. Although the deposits could be exploited very 
profitably, there are no factories in either line at Cumberland. 
The opening in both directions is therefore a good one. 

The country surrounding Cumberland produces large quan- 
tities of bread cereals. There are several flouring mills in the 
city which do a large and prosperous business, supplying the 
4 



50 

home demand and shipping to New York and Baltimore, and' 
also to South American and other foreign ports. The grain 
grown is of excellent quality, most of it being raised on moun- 
tain land, the effect of which is to give the grain the density 
and strength of grain grown in the North. The pure nioun- 
tain water and the ease with which rye and barley of superior 
quality can be procured has led to the establishment of a num- 
ber of distilleries and breweries. Whiskey and beer both are 
made largely for foreign consumption as well as to supply the 
local demand. 

"While those above enumerated constitute the larger indus- 
tries of Cumberland, they are far from including all. In each 
of the lines referred to, there are smaller factories whose pro- 
ducts help materially to advance the volume of the city's out- 
put. There are also several cigar factories, carriage factories^ 
coopers' material factories, soap factories, building-ijrick work,. 
&c. 

Before leaving the topic of Cumberland's industries, it should 
be said that the progressive citizens of the town, and there are 
many of them, are anxious that the advantages their city pos. 
sesses as a productive point should be better known, and hope- 
ful that new industries will be established there. To this end 
they are willing to contribute. 

Many of them are wealthy men whose co-operation in any 
well considered enterprise would insure its success. Quite a 
large amount of capital could be secured in Cumberland to aid 
in the establishment of iron and steel works of all kinds, wood 
and furniture factories, potteries, glass works, cement works or 
any manufacturing enterprise which might turn to account the 
raw materials with which the district surrounding the city is 
80 abundantly supplied. 

As the centre of a large territory in Maryland, West Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania, Cumberland has become an important 



51 



distributing point, and secured a pre-eminence in this direction 
which her magnificent raih-oad facilities are sure to retain for 
her. There are now a number of wholesale houses which are 
doing a large and profitable business. There are three national 
banks in Cumberland whose capital and surplus aggregate 
$600,000, There are also a number of smaller banks in the 
neighborhood, so that the monetary facilities for carrying on 
business are abundant. 

There are other aspects to the city than its industrial. As a 
place of residence, it has many charms, not the least @f which 
is its climate. The elements acknowledge the royalty of the 
Queen city. In summer, fresh breezes prevent the overheat- 
ing of the town, and in winter, the storms break their force on 
its green walls, the Allegany hills, and roar gently over the 
city. Sometimes, there are sudden changes of temperature in 
the winter, but they do not seem to have any ill effects upon 
the people. The town is exceptionally healthy, and malarial 
diseases are unknown. Invalids find the invigorating mountain 
air of great benefit to them. Many people from the larger 
cities resort to Cumberland in summer to recuperate. It is 
easily accessible, being only four hours from Washington and 
five from Baltimore or Pittsburg. Within two hours by rail 
are Deer Park and Oakland, Mountain Lake Park, Bedford 
Springs, Berkeley Springs and other summer resorts of 
national fame. All these enjoy a climate identical witli that 
of Cumberland. The situation of the city is most picturesque. 
It is built on both sides of Wills Creek, and the southern sec- 
tion of it extends along the east bank of the Potomac. The 
streets are wide and laid off as regularly as the topography of 
the site will admit. Baltimore street divides tlie northern and 
southern sections, and Centre street the eastern and western 
sections. The former street is the business thoroughfare, 
though a number of business houses front on Centre and other 
cross streets. At the eastern end of Baltimore street, the Bal- 



52 



timore and Ohio Railway tracks separate it from Baltimore 
avenue, on M4iich are many line residences and substantial 
homes. The AVest Virginia Central and Pitttsburg Railway, 
on the eastern bank of Wills Creek, and the bridge across that 
watercourse divide Baltimore from Washington street, on 
either side of which are rows of the most beautiful homes in 
Maryland. 

The City Hall and Academy of Music occupy an entire 
square and is the largest municipal structui-e in tlie State, out- 
side of Baltimore. It was built in ISTtt-'G at a cost of 
$90,000. The hall fronts on (Jentre street and is built of brick. 
The building, whicli is 72 feet high, has a tower which runs 
up 145 feet. On the ground floor is the city market, the 
upper floors being occupied by the council and civic officers. 
The theatre, one of the finest in the State, takes in the southern 
half of the building._ Its furnishings, stage properties and 
scenery are equal to those of any metropolitan theatre. 

Cumberland is a good place to live in. A brick or frame 
house of seven rooms can be rented at fi'om 

EIGHT TO TWELVE DOLLARS PEE MONTH, 

and large houses in proportion. At present there is not a 
vacant house in the city, and more will have to be built. The 
reason of the low rents is the low price of land and the exceed- 
ing abundance and cheapness of building material. In spite 
of the figures quoted above it is profitable to build houses for 
rental in the city ; but as a rule new-comers to the city are not 
long before they build homes of their own. Prosperity sits 
smiling on the face of the citizens, and excessive poverty is 
unknown. 

There are two daily papers. The Times, and the Daily 
News, which are the leading papers in Western Maryland. 

The city is supplied with water by the Holly system of 
water works owned by the cit}-. There is a well-organized 



53 



and equipped fire departmeiit which has at all times been able 
to control the fires that have visited the citj. The streets are 
lighted by the Edison system of electric lights and gas. The 
public schools are well conducted and are supplemented by the 
Alleghany County Academy and other private schools. The 
churches are, one English Lutheran, two German Lutheran, 
four Methodist, one Baptist, two Catholic (English and Ger- 
man), one Presbyterian, one Protestant Episcopal, one Re- 
formed Episcopal, one German Reformed, one Jewish Syna- 
gogue, and three colored, two Methodist and one Baptist, 
There is also a 1 oung Men's Christian Association, with a well- 
equipped librai'y and gymnasium. Cumberland is pre-erni- 
nantly a city possessed of all the modern conveniences. Visi- 
tors find that there are several lirst-class hotels, the largest of 
which is the Queen city, built and owned by the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railway, and under the same able management as the 
hotels at Deer Park and Oakland. The most popular towns 
outside of Cumberland are Fi'ostburg with a population of 
3,804, and "Western Port with a population of 1,526. 

The chief mechanical industries outside of Cumberland are 
fire-brick works at Frostburg, Ellerslie and Mount Savage, and 
the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad shops at the latter 
place. Coal-mining is the leading industry, and upon it the 
present prosperity of the county largely depends, but there 
is no apparent reason why, with the proper placing of capital, 
other interests could not be created to add materially to the 
county's wealth and population. Some attention has been 
paid to natural gas and oil developement in two sections of the 
county, though as yet without positive result. The taxable 
basis of the county is SbT,81S,251. The annual amount of 
general mercantile business transacted in the entire county is 
estimated at S3,706,000, the greater proportion of this being- 
transacted in Cumberland and five of the larircr towns. 



54 



CARROLL COUNTY, 



Carroll is tlie most eastern of the Western Maryland coun- 
ties. It is bounded bj Pennsylvania on the north, Baltimore 
county on the east, Howard county on the south, and Frederick 
county on the west. The surface is rolling and picturesque, 
and the county is one of the most fertile and prosperous in 
Western Maryland. According to the census of 1890, the 
population of Carroll county was 32,376, divided as follows : 
white 30,190 ; colored 2,185. The area of the county is 426 
square miles, and according to the census of 1890, the cereal 
production was as follows : corn, 1,003,986 bushels from 31,- 
983 acres ; wheat, 579,333 bushels from 40,077 acres ; oats, 
262,458 bushels from 11,972 acres; tobacco, 137,171 pounds 
from 162 acres; rye, 54,879 bushels from 5,269 acres ; buck- 
wheat, 12,543 bushels from 972 acres barley, 3,724 bushels 
from 133 acres. 

The people are industrious and the soil productive, generally 
of a good quality, susceptible of easy improvement, and acts 
well with any of the grades of fertilizer and lime. The loca- 
tion of the county, its high elevation and the absence of large 
tracts of marsh or low lands, keeps it peculiarly free from epi- 
demics of any kind, and the people enjoy good health, many 
of them living to a vigorous old age. The value of the land 
ranges from $25 to $100 per acre. Grape culture would pro- 
bably prove remunerative if made a specialty. The climate is 
better adapted to late than to early vegetables. The facilities 
for transportation are good, the farthest point in the county 
not being more than eight miles from a railroad depot. The 
farmers are pretty generally well supplied with all necessary 
farming implements of the latest improvement. The horses 
and horned cattle have been much improved during late years, 
the people in many cases making a specialty of the stock busi- 
ness. They have imported a great many mules recently, prin- 
cipally of Kentuck}^ breeding. At present there is very little 



55 



manufacturing, but there are fine opportunities for capitalists 
to invest in tliis department. Westminster alone does at least 
$1,500,000 in business, commercial and otherwise. "Westmin- 
ster, according to the census of 1890, has a population of 2,903, 
an increase of 15.80 per cent, over the census of 1880, It is a 
beautiful, healthy and thriving place. 

The character of the soil varies in different sections of the 
■county — limestone in some sections, red loam in others, blue 
slate, yellow slate and honeycomb — all kinds and very sus- 
ceptible of improvement. The county celebrated on Easter 
Monday, 1887, the semi-centennial anniversary of its organiza- 
tion. Formed from some of the most fertile and highly 
favored portions of the rich counties of Baltimore and Fred- 
erick, its half century of growth has developed the resources 
•of the soil in a wonderful degree, and it occupies one of the 
foremost places among the progressive and prosperous coun- 
ties of Maryland. With a contented, industrious and thrifty 
population, its prosperity is an assured fact, and their love of 
improvement gives promise of a bright future to the county. 

FREDERICK COUNTY, 

Frederick, the oldest of the Western Maryland counties, 
«,nd one of the largest and most flourishing in the State, is 
bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the east by Carroll 
■county, south by Howard and Montgomery counties and the 
Potomac River, and west by Washington county. The county 
contains an area of 633 square miles. It is divided into 
twenty-one election districts. The westci-n boundary of the 
■county is the top of South Mountain. East of this, and run- 
ning nearly parallel, is the first mountain ridge of Western 
Maryland, called the Catoctin Mountain, which is a spur of 
the Blue Ridge. The country between these two mountains 
comprises six of the election districts, and is known as the 



56 



Middletown Yallej, which is watered by the Catoctin creek in 
its flow to the Potomac. Pen-Mar, the celebrated resort on tlie 
Western Maryland Pailroad, is situated at the head of this- 
valley, and is right at the northwest corner of the connty. 
The npper end of the county, comprising Ilauver's and Catoc- 
tin districts, is broken, hilly, and for the most part stony,, 
although there are several fertile little valleys, formed by the 
Catoctin creek, known as Eyler's, Harbaugh, &c. The next 
district towards the south is Jackson, which has good, strong- 
soil, mostly limestone. Next comes Middletown, with its 
heavy limestone soil, and one of the richest and most produc- 
tive districts in the county. Below this lie Petersville and 
Jefferson districts, which contain a variety of soil, clay, flint, 
limestone and loamy land, mostly of good qnality and produc- 
tive. These two districts border on the Potomac Piver, and 
the B. & O. P. P. and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal run 
throiiffh their southern borders. In the former of tliese 
districts is situated the famous "Merryland tract," the seat of 
some of the finest homes in the count3\ Among the families 
residing there are those of Outerbridge Horsey, Thomas Lee, 
the Gouverneurs, Deavers, Horines, O'Donnells, Hillearys, 
Ahalts and others. Here is situated also the ISTeedwood distil- 
lery, operated by Mr. Outerbridge Horsey. The remarkable 
gap in the mountains at Harper's Feri-y is a conspicuous 
feature from this locality. Along the South Mountain, from 
a point northward of Middletown down to Crain[)ton's Gap, 
near the Potomac, the battle of South Mountain was fought. 

East of the Catoctin mountain lies the Monocacy Valley, 
watered by the river of that name, much broader than the 
Middletown Yalley, and bounded on the east by the Linga- 
nore Hills. Emmittsburg and ISIechanicstown districts, which 
lie about the headwaters of the Monocacy in the northern part 
of the county, have a variety of soil — slate, flint, clay, loam 
and red land. Creagerstown, Lewistown and Tuscarora dis- 



57 



tricts are mostly red clay soil, with some flint, slate and lime- 
stone. They produce large crops of grain. Xear Etnmitts- 
burg are located the large Catholic institutions, Mount St. 
Mary's College and Mount St. Joseph's Academy, which is 
also the headquarters of the Sisters of Charity in the United 
States. The Western Maryland Eailroad runs through 
Creagerstown and Mechanicstown districts, and tlierc is a 
branch railroad from Rocky Eidge to Emmittsbui-g, and also a 
branch from Mechanicstown to the Catoctin iron furnaces, a 
distance of three miles. Einmittslmrg and Mechanicstown 
are both thrifty towns, each possessing a number of local 
industries, such as tanneries, ifec. Tom's Fishing and limit- 
ing creeks, strong streams which flow down the mountain sides 
in this region, afford excellent water-power. Woodsboro, 
Mount Pleasant, Frederick and Buckeystown districts, extend- 
ing southward along the Monocacy, comprise the largest 
extent of prime soil in the county. ISTearly all of it is strong, 
first-class limestone land, comparatively level and almost 
wholly free from surface rock that would interfere with 
cultivation. It is unsurpassed by^ any land in the State for 
general fertility. 

Johnsville, Liberty and Linganore districts comprise a fine 
farming section — land gently rolling, mostly limestone, w'ith 
some slate and flint. In this region are situated valuable de- 
posits of copper, zinc and hematite iron ores. The Dolly 
Hyde copper mines, near Liberty, were operated a centurj' 
ago, and continued to be worked successfully until stopped in 
recent years by inflow of water. The Liberty copper mines 
are near Johnsville, and tlie zinc and iron mines in Linganore 
districts. Woodville, New Market and Ilrbana, together with 
the three last named districts, comprise the Linganore section 
of the country, lying east and south of the Monocacy, and 
drained by the Linganore, Bush and Bennett creeks, tributaries 
of the Monocacy. The laud in 'these districts is more rolling 



58 



and consists principallj of slate and flint soil, there being little 
or no limestone in this section. The land, however, is of a 
good claj consistency, though varying somewhat in quality. 
The best is under good tillage, producing excellent crops and 
well adapted for fruits. 

In the western section of the county there is considerable 
mountain land that would make comfortable homes for indus- 
trious settlers, and which can be bought for from one dollar to 
ten dollars per acre. The better lands in the upper part of 
Middletown valley, with comfortable improvements, range 
from $15 to $40, while in the lower part, the range is from 
$25 to $100 per acre. In the upper part of Monocacy valle^^, 
improved farms range in price from $20 to $50, and in the 
lower part from $50 to $120 ; in the upper Liuganere section, 
from $30 to $100, and in the lower portion from $10 to $70. 
Springs and running water abound throughout the county, 
except in the limestone region, around Frederick and Middle- 
town, which is supplied largely by wells. 

The present products of Frederick county are principally 
wheat and corn and other cereals, hay, potatoes, grass and 
dairy products. Considerable impetus has recently been given 
to the dairy interests in the county, and large creameries have 
been established at Walkersville, Middletown, Buckeystown, 
Adamstown, Frederick and other places. The low price of 
wheat and corn has been one cause of the stimulus to the 
dairy business, the farmers beginning to realize the necessity 
for a new departure. The mountains in the Linganore section 
are well adapted to the growtli of all kinds of fruit and the 
cultivation of the vine. The Catawba, Concord, Isabella and 
other varieties of the grape grow there to great perfection, but 
little attention has yet been given to the cultivation of fruits 
of any kind on an extended scale, though it would undoubt- 
edly prove profitable. The mountains are capable of culti- 
vation to their tops, and wines of an excellent quality are 



59 



made here in a limited way from the native grape. During 
his several visits to Frederick while President, Gen. Grant 
expressed much surprise that the great advantages of the 
mountain sides in this section were not availed of for the cul- 
tivation of grapes. Nearly the whole of this connty is excel- 
lently adapted for truck farming, and capable of raising to the 
greatest perfection, all kinds of vegetable and small fruits. 
Asparagus and celery of the finest quality are produced, and 
^11 root crops yield largely, but their cultivation thus far has 
been for home consumption only. The scope for varied agri- 
culture is unlimited, and especially in view of the fact that 
there are direct railroad outlets to Washington, Baltimore and 
Philadelphia by both the Baltimore and Ohio and Pennsyl- 
vania Railroads. In regard to machinery, the most improved 
make is generally used, and abundant supplies of it are fur- 
nished by agriculture implement houses in Frederick and by 
agents at the various railroad stations throughout the county. 
Horses, cattle, hogs and sheep are generally of superior quality 
and great attention has of late years been given by numerous 
stock farmers in the county to the breeding of the best strains 
of these. The result has been a great improvement in milch 
cows, roadsters, draught horses, &c. 

The manufactures of the county comprise numerous flouring 
mills and tanneries, three distilleries, the Catoctin iron fur- 
naces, a number of brickyards, hinge factory, several woolen 
mills, carriage factories, numerous extensive limekilns, several 
foundries, and one of the largest corn canning establishments 
in the country. The abundance of watei-- power in the county 
and available mill sites, together with the conveniences for 
procuring coal by railroad and canal, and timber of all kinds 
from the forests of Pennsylvania and "\'irginia, added to the 
mineral resources, present great inducements for certain kinds 
of Manufactures. The enormous output of pig iron from the 
Catoctin furnaces, when in operation, together with the large 



60 



quantities of iron that might 1)g produced from other ore 
deposits, could all be worked up to advantage in the county, if 
rolling mills and other iron industries were established, instead 
of being transported to other States. The manufacture of 
agricultural implements and machinery, woodwork for carri- 
ages, &c., could iiho be profitably conducted ; and if truck 
farming was more generally introduced, a superior quality of 
all kinds of seed could be supplied. A pickling factory on a 
large scale, it is thought, could also do well. 

According to the census of 1890, the population of Frederick 
county was 49,512, divided as follows: white, 42,865; colored 
6,64:6. Frederick city, according to the census of 1890, contains 
a population of 8,193. 

Among the larger towns outside of Frederick, are Emmitts- 
burg, Mechanicstown, Middletown, Woodsboro, Jefferson, 
Walkers ville, Buckeystown, New Market, Lil)erty, Union ville 
and Point of Ilocks. Of macadamized roads tliere are about 
125 miles, and between 1,200 and 1,300 miles of country roads. 
The public schoolhouses number 151, and the pupils wha 
attend them nearly 11,000. The churches, representing all 
denominations, number about 140. In 1880, according to- 
the census returns, the county had 13,326 horses, 13,793 milch 
cows, 14,544 other cattle, 12,672 sheep, 38,074 swine. The 
farm products were 1,774,256 bushels of corn, 1,418,542 of 
wheat, 94,267 of oats, 42,502 of rye, 133,390 of irish potatoes, 
370,840 pounds of tobaccco, 74,857 j)onnds of wool. There 
were at that time 444 manufacturing industi'ies in the county, 
with capital of $1,828,927, and products of the value of 
$2,806,098. 

The opportunities afforded in Freilerick county for indus- 
trious immigrants are believed to be as o-ood as anywhere in 
the United States. Tiie colored help is, to a large extent,, 
inefficient and unreliable, and industrious white immigrants 
would be welcomed and have no difficulty in securing employ- 



61 



ment at remunerative wages, or cheap homes where they could 
rapidly thrive and prosper. 

GARRETT COUNTY. 

Garrett, the last formed of the Maryland counties, is located 
in the extreme western portion the State. It contains an 
area of 680 square miles of territory, with a population 
(census of 1890) of 14,213, divided as follows: white, 
14,030; colored, 183. Tlie agricultural productions, accord- 
ing to the census of 1880, were corn, 90,777 bushels, from 
3,714 acres; wheat, 44,399 bushels, from 4,122 acres; buck- 
wheat,- 72,333 bushels, from 4,989 acres; oats, 171,723 
bushels, from 8",657 acres; rye 21,552 bushels, from 2,746 
acres ; tobacco, 1,927 pounds, from 4 acres. 

The Great Savage mountain, better known as the backbone 
of the AUeganies, crosses the county from north to south. 
On the east side of the mountain is the Maryland coal basin, 
about one-third of which is in Garrett county. On the west- 
ern side of the backbone, and lying between that and Meadow 
mountain, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet 
above tidewater, is a vast table-land, covering an area of four 
hundi'ed square miles, one-third of which is glade land, and 
is unquestionably the finest portion of the State for grazing 
.and stock raising. There is, perhaps, no county in tlie State 
which contains such valuable mineral deposits in coal and iron 
ore. Fire clay and limestone of a superior quality abound 
also. 

The soil is a dark, rich loam, which is very productive, and 
readily yields 25 bushels of wheat, 40 bushels of oats, 40 to 
<50 bushels of corn, or 200 bushels of potatoes per acre, with- 
out fertiUzers, The soil, which is naturally good, is easily 
improved, and a coat of lime acts like a charm upon it. The 
country is sparsely settled, and there is, therefore, a great deal 
•of uncultivated and unimproved land, much of which is for 



62 



sale. Unimproved lands may be bonglit in large or small 
tracts, at prices ranging from three to ten dollars per acre, 
whilst improved farms command from ten to thirty dollars 
per acre. 

Notwithstanding the natnral productiveness of the soil and 
the numerous other advantages possessed by the early ssttlers^ 
they paid verj^ little attention to agriculture beyond the raising 
of a little buckwheat, oats, and a few potatoes. In later years ^ 
however, the forests are being cleared out, farms opened up, 
and a large number of the most intelligent and best citizens 
of the country are turning their attention to farming as a bus- 
iness, and are growing, in addition to the crops raised by their 
predecessors, large crops of wheat and corn, and in addition to 
these, wool, maple sugar and butter are produced in large quan- 
tities annually. 

Facilities for reaching market are ample in all parts of the 
county. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad runs through the 
southern portion of the count}', from east to west, for a dis- 
tance of thirty miles. On the southeastern border runs the 
West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Raili'oad for a distance 
of thirty miles or more. On the east is the Cumberland and 
Pennsylvania Railroad, and the National turnpike road tra- 
verses the northern portion of the county for a distance of 
twenty miles. The northern part of the county has access to 
the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad, a bi'anch of whicli 
runs to Salisbury, which is located very near the Maryland and 
Pennsylvania line. The large number of towns along the 
railroads, and especially those along George's creek, in the 
mining region, furnish good markets for nearly all the pro- 
duce raised in the county. Improvements in labor-saving 
machinery and farming implements are keeping pace with the 
general advance all along the agricultural line, and nearly 
ever}^ farmer is provided with reapers, mowers and grain drills, 
as well as the latest improved plows, harrows and other uten-^ 



63 



sils. Stock-raising is one of the leading iiidnstries, and the 
farmers and graziers are constantly introducing new breeds of 
animals for the purpose of improving their stock. 

Being the highest section in the State, Garrett county is 
exceptionally healthy. Malarial diseases are unknown, and 
invalids, especially those suffering from hay-fever, find the 
invigorating mountain air of great benefit. In the summer, 
many people from the larger cities, especially from the south 
and west, resort to the great health-giving resorts, Oakland and 
Deer Park, which are situated in this county, on the line of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, to recuperate. The situation 
of these two resorts, 2500 feet above the sea, is most pictur- 
esque. Oakland is a thriving place and has a population of 
lj046. an increase of 14.95 per cent, over the census of 1880. 

Manufactures in Garrett do not amount to a great deal, and 
are limited to two or three woolen factories, about the same 
number of tanneries, and a few lumber mills, which turn out 
various kinds of lumber, shingles, laths, shooks, staves, &c. 
The future of this county probably lies in its capacity for agri- 
cultural products, and not in its prospect of becoming a manu- 
facturing community. The time is not distant when this will 
be a great agricultural county. The amount of mercantile 
business done annually in the towns of the county would prob- 
ably reach the sum of i^200,000. 

One of the most interesting features in this connection is 
the opportmiity afforded to industrious and steady immigrants 
and farmers of small means to procure homes for themselves 
and families. The sparsely settled condition of the county, 
the large amount of unimproved land for sale, the productive- 
ness of the soil, the facilities for reaching market, coupled 
with the advantages of climate, offer special advantages to 
settlers. 



64 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 

Montgomery borders on the central and southern sections of 
tlie State, and partaking to some extent of the characteristic 
features of all three divisions, presents a great variety of sur- 
face, soil and resources. The Potomac river forms its 
western and the Patuxent its northern and eastern boundary, 
separating it from Howard county'. Frederick county is 
contiguous on the north, and Prince George's county and the 
District of Columbia on the south. Its area is 508 square 
miles, of which 175,000 acres are under cultivation, B0,000 in 
wood, and tlie remainder unimproved. According to the 
census of 1890 the population of the county was 27,185, an 
increase of 2,-126 over the census of 1880, or 9.80 per cent. 
It is divided as. follows: White, 17,472; colored, 9,710. 
The crop statistics in 1880 were as follows : Buckwheat, 
3,057 l)ushels, from 260 acres ; corn, 1,020,573 bushels, from 
35,287 acres ; oats, 59,537 bushels, from 3,126 acres ; rye 
17,109 bushels, from 1,785 acres ; wheat, 625,702 bushels, 
from 35,673 acres; tobacco, 806,036 pounds, from 1,053 acres. 
The census of 1890 shows tliat Montgomery, with one excep- 
tion, grows more wheat to the acre than any county in Marj^- 
land, the average yield being 17^ bushels. "Washington is the 
banner county in this regard, yielding 25f bushels per acre, 
while Frederick, which follows Montgomery in the order of 
production, gives an average of 17 bushels to the acre. 

Rockville is the county seat and the largest town in the 
county, having a population of 1,568, an increase of 880 ovei- 
the census of 1880 or 127.91 per cent. 

The county has made great injprovement agriculturally in 
recent years, and is now one of the most prosperous and 
progressive counties in the State. There is still, however, a 
good deal of unimproved land, and the county offers unusual 
facilities for making of comfortable homes for industrious 
immigrants. The soil is principally red clay sub-soil, but 



65 



ranges all the way from the rich loam of the river bottoms 
along the Potomac and its many other streams to tlie sandy 
soil near the lower edge of the county. Most of the land is 
highly improved, and sells for from tifty to a hundred dollars 
per acre,, but there are sections as yet comparatively unim- 
proved of tirst-rate quality that can be bought for from fifteen 
to thirty dollars per acre. 

The ground is rolling, not hilly, broken enough, however, 
to keep well watered, but not marshy, with here and there a 
hill, the southern side of which grow the earliest and sweetest 
fruits and berries. Wheat, corn and hay, are the staple pro- 
ducts, and the amount of these produced to the acre is steadily 
increasing. In some sections truck gardening is extensively 
operated, and the markets of Washington receive a large pro- 
portion of their fruits, berries and vegetables from this source. 
The success with which these efforts have been attended, indi- 
cates that the markets of Baltimore as well could be profitably 
supplied. The plentiful supply of clover and timothy which 
the now fertile land produces, has induced many to operate 
stock, grazing and daii'y farms. The exhibition of stock owned 
in Montgomery county, displayed at the county fair, was very 
fine. In Washington many fine horses are owned, and during 
the summer, when the owners are away, the animals are sent 
into this county to be kept and recuperated for their use in the 
winter, and as the owners are willing to pay good prices, con- 
siderable money is thus made. Many gallons of milk and 
cream are daily shipped to Washington, and the B. & O. has 
made special arrangements to carry the milk, etc., and this 
with the quantity which is brought to the numerous creameries 
situated in the county, show that the dairy business has its in- 
ducement^ 

Lying adjacent to the District of Columbia, and connected 
with it by the Metro politian Branch of the Baltimore and 



66 



Ohio Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and numerous 
•electric railroads, communication with Baltimore, Washington 
and all parts of the United States, is very convenient One 
can easily shop or attend to business in those cities, going and 
returning the same day. The Baltimore & Oliio Railroad has 
twenty-seven stations to the twenty-nine miles it runs through 
the county, with a proportionate large number of trains. At 
present the B. and O. is building a southern connection through 
the lower part of the county, which will be of great advantage. 
For shipping purposes the canal is cheap and commodious. 
There is a convenience in this method of transportation not to 
be met with in railroads, that of not having to haul to a sta- 
tion, as the whole canal is one depot. The roads are improv- 
ing, and those met wnth near the District line and in the north- 
eastern section of the county are worthy of note. Before 
many years are passed, the whole county will be connected by 
pikes like that magnilicent one built by the United States from 
'Georgetown to the Great Falls in this county. This road is known 
as the Conduit road from the fact that tlio water supply of Wash- 
ington is conveyed from the falls by pipes buried under tlic road- 
bed, with the advantage of quick communication with large 
cities. As the ground is naturally adapted to trucking, this 
industry will soon develop into immense proportions. 

And the climat% is in keeping with all else, for winters are 
just cold enough to kill the disease germs and make sufficient 
ice for use. The summers are pleasant, and draw huge crowds 
to spend the hot season. The absence of tornadoes, floods, 
drouths and infectious diseases ^how that this county has 
nothing to fear Irom its climatic conditions. The physicians 
of Washington continually send their patients into the county, 
and the effect of the pure air and water, the fresh fruits and 
vegetables, is best known by the fact that doctors testify to 
their appreciation of the benefits derived. Indeed, there have 
lately been built extensive sanitariums, not, however, for the 
use of the inhabitants. 



67 



The social advantages of this county are bejond question. 
True worth and morality are the standards by which a stranger 
is measured, and not wealth or ancestral fame. 

There are amusements for all sets and classes — athletic 
sports, hunting and tishing, husking matches, and church 
entertainments and societies, euchre parties, hops and germans. 
The influx of wealth has done much to enliven, whei'eas the 
natural hospitality and un pretentiousness of the old inhabi- 
tants still keep the society within limits unextravagant enough 
for the entrance of those of moderate means. 

No one can complain of the scarcity of churches. Rock- 
ville has eight, and yet the neighboring villages do not suffer 
by comparison. There is scarcely a denomination that has not 
many comfortable, and, in some instances, elegant edifices, 
and a new comer need not fear that he will be forced to chansre 
his creed for want of a house of worship. 

Maryland, with a remarkable school system, has no county 
in w^hich the cliildren are better taught, the schools kept open 
longer or situated closer together. The universality of attend- 
ance, and the many men who have won fame and fortune w^ith- 
out other education than that they obtained from tlie public 
schools of this county, are sufficient testimonials of their value. 
To those wishing a scientific or professional education, the op- 
portunities are remarkable. A number of well-known acade- 
mies and seminaries afford the best preparation, and the num- 
ber of students who attend the universities of Washina-ton. 
going and returning each day, attest the convenience and prac- 
ticability of this course. 

Considering tlie wonderfully low assessment, the taxation is 
very low, and lately, when a new court house, costing $50,000 
was erected, not a complaining voice was heard. This is good 
proof that the people do not regard themselves as oppressively 
taxed. It is remarkable that with the great development the 
county's debt should remain so small. 



68 

There is a great demand for good artisans and farm hands, 
and excellent wages are paid. 

The numerous streams are not surpassed in the water power 
they afford for all varieties of manufactories and mills, and, 
taking into consideration the low taxation, the short winters 
and the .proximity to raw material and good markets, it is 
plain there is money for enterprising men, who would direct 
their efforts to the utilization of the water power. The Great 
Falls of the Potomac alone have power enough to run all the 
mills of New England, and a large manufacturing city may 
coniidently be looked for at that point. The large quantity of 
land that is continually changing hands brings an immense 
amount of money into this county, and thus makes it much 
easier for the poor. 

The development of the deposits of gold, silver, mica and 
chrome found will add to the wealth of the county. But it is 
because of the surely great future of Washington that the resi- 
dents of Montgomery county can rest assured that great and 
inestimable results will follow. 

The effect of proximity to the District of Columbia has al- 
ready been remarkable. Five or ten years ago there were 
from 1,300 to 1,400 acres of land, for the ,most part connected 
and all lying in the county, sold for $30,000. In the last five 
years those same tracts have been resold for^$500^00. 

The land as a general rule, bordering along the railroads 
and the district line is too expensive to offer any great induce- 
ments for those of moderate means, selling for from fifty 
dollars to five hundred dollars an acre; but after leaving 
these lines for a mile or two, good and fairly improved farms 
can be purchased at from $20 to $30 per acre, and in some 
sections as low as $10 to $15 an acre. While at present the 
land immediate to the district and railroads only commands 
such enormous figures, it is only a matter of a few years when 



69 



the land more remote will be governed by these prices. And 
here is the chance for immigrants.| |If they have enough 
money to buy a farm of the land selling for from $10 to $30 
an acre, they can, with care and industry, make a good living 
from the start, and in a short time give their farms an attrac 
tivc .'ippearance ; and then, when the boom has spread, as it 
surely will do, into their immediate neighborhoods; tliey will 
be able to dispose of their places for a sum far beyond the 
original cost. Any one thinking this a visionary scheme need 
but stndy the situation to find it a sure, substantin reality. 

The Chautauqua Society has latj'iy er.;,-!: ■ 1 i . :^ 

million-dollar building within the county, on the banks ui . 
Potomac, or "the Rhine of America," as they have express- 
ively named it. 

"WASHINGTON COUNTY 

Washington county is located in the western part of Mary 
land, and includes within its limits the southern portion of the 
famous Cumberland Yalley. This valley comprises almost 
the entire county. The surface of the land is rolling and in 
places extremely picturesque. The soil which is very strong and 
highly productive, is of clayey and limestone formation, with 
occasional streaks of slate. On the mountain ranges, however, 
freestone predominates. A very small quantity of good tim- 
ber remains, as it has been gradually cut to make room for 
crops. The soil is best adapted for the production of wheat, 
corn, oats and hay, and these crops are cultivated to the ex- 
clusion of others. Very little buckwheat is raised, and no 
barley is sown. Tobacco has been^ successfully raised in several 
parts of the county, and the crop has compared favorably with 
that produced in Pennsylvania; but no serious efforts have 
been made to raise it as a permanent product. The exper- 
ience of several generations of farmers seem to prove that 
better results are obtained in this county from wheat and corn 
than any other products. 



70 



"Washington county iias long been noted for its success in 
producing these cereals. During the fifties, before the west 
became so thickly settled, this county stood third among the 
counties of the United States in its production of wheat. In 
fact, the largest average yield an acre in a test case on record 
in the United States, was in this county. The yield amounted 
to slightly over sixty-three bushels per acre. The best land in 
the county lies between the South and North mountains — the 
two ranges of the Blue Eidgo. This is entirely of clay and 
limestone formation, with the exception, however, of a strip 
of slate on the Conococheague Creek. From the North 
Mountain to the western limits of the county, which is a 
small section of the county, the soil is not so productive. The 
best land brings from sixty to one hundred dollars per acre, the 
price being controlled by the improvements, the fertility and 
the proximity to the county-seat. Along the Potomac river, 
excellent land can be purchased for thirty-five to fifty dollars. 
What is known as the slate land is bringing from five to thirty 
dollars an acre, althongh recent cultivation is steadily enhanc- 
ing its value. This land produces wheat of an excellent 
quality, but the quantity is small. Fruit is now being exten- 
sively cultivated on this soil. 

The peach culture has of late years converted the mountain 
land into the highest priced land in the county. Formerly its 
market value was about one dollar an acre. At the present 
time, without being cleared, it readily calls for eight to ten 
dollars an acre, and with a growing peacli orchard it will bring 
one hundred dollars an acre. The largest peach-grower in the 
world— a resident of Delaware — gave it recently as his opinion 
that the Blue Ridge Peach of this county surpassed in color 
and flavor any fruit of the kind grown in the United States. 

There are parts of Washington county, near Pen-Mar, where 
the Western Maryland Railroad runs through miles of peach 



71 



orchards as continuous :is in the peach belt of the peninsula. 
During the past season much of the forest growth on tiie moun- 
tain sides has [given place to regularly-planted rows of trees, 
and orchards are gradually covering the whole face of the bor- 
der territory in^. Pennsylvania, as well as extending down into 
Frederick and Carroll counties of Maryland, so that in a few 
years there wilP^be as much business during the summer for 
railroads in Western Maryland as on tlie Eastern Shore. The 
time is not far distant either when every hillside will be cov- 
ered with orchards and ^^ vineyards, for fruits of all kinds 
adapted to our latitude, such as apples, peaches, pears, cherries, 
grapes, &c., flourish in all the western counties, and the culti- 
vation of the peach in the mountain region has given value to 
lands which only a few years ago were worthless, except for 
the timber and bark of the forests on them. The difference 
which the change has already made in the aspect of the coun- 
try is as much a surprise as a pleasure to the eye. Order and 
the evidences of systematic labor have so ti'ansformed much of 
the mountain land, that the Blue Eidge region has lost a good 
deal of the wild appearance which was formerly its main 
characteristic. But the change does not mar the picturesque- 
ness of the mountain scenery in the least. On the contrary, 
it adds pretty details, and tones down the wild and rugged spurs 
of the range and brings the hills into harmony with the valley by 
a continuous strain of prosperous agriculture. Peach orchards 
thrive equally on the mountain sides and tops and in the 
valley, and they are gradually, in company with the grape, 
assuming swa}^ at such a rate as in a few years to predominate. 

But for the Western Maryland Railroad, there would have 
been little or none of the remarkable development of the Blue 
Mountain region, agriculturally or otherwise. Baltimoreans 
are accustomed to the Pen-Mar and summer resort travel 
from the city to the mountains, but they are not aware of how 
large the travel is daily during the summer season from the 



72 



prosperous border counties of Pennsylvania, from Hanover, 
Gettysburg and other more distant points in that State. It 
may be reasonably expected that when the Potomac Valley 
link is completed from Williamsport to Cherry Run, and the 
York and Reading and Harrisburg extensions are completed, 
not only general traffic will flow toward Baltimore, but that 
travel from a large area of the rich State of Pennsylvania will 
seek our mountain resorts, and that capital will come, too, to 
help the development, now so well under way. For summer 
sojourning there could not be a more accessible or more 
beautiful mountain region than Pen-Mar and the Blue 
Mountain House overlooking the grand Cumberland Yalley, 
and the magnificent new hotel at Buena Yista Springs, perched 
on a mountain spur like a great castle. This building is a 
grand object, not dwarfed or made insignificant by the natural 
surroundings, but, on the contrary, fitting the scene and 
supplying a motive for the picture. Besides these extensive 
establishments, there are a number of smaller hotels and 
boarding houses, which have all been put up by Baltimore 
city and local capital and energy. The number of resorts 
already in the mountains presages further enterprise in this 
direction. Those which are in the Blue Ridge region will in 
time make it necessary for others to be put up, for the region 
is the natural resort of the populous towns and cities of the 
District of Columbia, of Maryland, of Delaware and of a large 
part of Pennsylvania. In order to get the full benefit of 
mountain air and to enjoy the grandeur of mountain scenery, 
surrounded by every comfort and luxury, it is no longer neces- 
sary to make lengthy and expensive journeys to the northward. 
Here, from three States and the District of Columbia, the 
beautiful blue mountains of Maryland-Pennsylvania are ac- 
cessible in a few hours. 

The farms of Washington county contain from fifty to five 
and six hundred acres. Yery few of the latter farms now 



1/ 



73 



remain. The average contain about one hundred and fifty 
acres. 

The average yield of vrheat throughout the county is about 
twenty-five bushels to an acre, although crops as high as forty 
bushels have frequently been gathered. The average pro- 
duction of corn is fifty bushels to an acre. In 1891, how- 
ever, fifty flour barrels to an acre of this crop were produced 
on small and highly-cultivated patches. 

Farming throughout tlie county is conducted on intelligent 
and scientific principles, and the very best improved 
machinery is used. Of late years many farmers have been 
using up their inferior corn and other products in fattening 
cattle over winter for market. These stall fed cattle are 
generally purchased in West Virginia, although a large 
number are raised in this county. 

The raising of poultry has become an additional industry, and 
considerable attention is now given to it. This is because of the 
easy access to the city markets. JSTo county has such excel- 
lent facilities for the transportation of its products as Washing- 
ton county has. Four railroads, which make direct connection 
with important trunk lines, traverse the greater part of the 
country in all directions, and the western or remaining portion, 
is paralleled by the main stem of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The canal follows 
the entire southern trend of the county, and offers an excel- 
lent local market and facilities for shipment of farm products. 
Every farm in the county is within easy reach of a railroad. 

Besides the railroads, this county possesses one of the finest 
systems of macadamized roads in the country. Eight pikes 
radiate from Hao-erstown, and these arc intersected bv others 
in diffei'ent. parts of the county. 

Within the^^last fifteen years great attention has been be- 
stowed upon fine-bred stock. The finest strains of imported 



74 



Percheron, Clydesdale, French coach and standard bred horses 
are now owned in large numbers throughout the county, while 
nearly every farm is stocked with Dui-ham, kShort-horn, Jersey, 
Hereford, llolstein or other imi)orted cattle. This is true 
also in reference to hogs and sheep, ilagerstown is one of the 
most important horse markets in the country. Local firms 
ship alniopt Aveekly large consignments to Washington, Balti- 
more, and as far east as Boston. Most of the seaboard cities 
are within a distance of three to nine hours from Hagerstown. 

The local market is, however, rnpidly developing. Hagers- 
town, the county seat, is already an important railroad center, and 
it is fast becoming a large manufacturing place. New industries 
are springing up rapidly, and before many years it will be the 
princii)al manufacturing locality in the State, outside of Balti- 
more. Besides the industries which are backed by local capital, 
several extensive foreign plants have already been located there, 
and others ai"e in contemplation. At least two thousand per- 
sons are now engaged in the manufacturing enterprises of 
Hagerstown. Washington county, besides its generous soil 
for agriculture, contains good iron ore in paying quantities, ex- 
cellent brick clay, quarries of the very best quality of blue 
limestone for building purposes, and large deposits of cement 
rock, which is now being extensively converted into the very 
best hydraulic cement. 

The water system is very extensive. The Antietam and 
Conococheague creeks, with their tj'ibutaries, drain the greater 
portion of the county, while the Potomac} river flows the en- 
tire length of the county on the south. Jnnunierable spi-ings 
and running streams of pure and wholesome water are found 
in every section of the county. There is scarcely a farm that 
has not running water upon it. The farms are generally im- 
proved with large brick and stone buildings. Of recent years, 
however, there have been many frame barns and houses 
erected. 



75 



The society throughout tlio farming districts is sociable, in- 
telligent and refined, and will compare favorably with any 
other rural section of the country. The climate is excellent. 
It is the most healthy section of the state; an epidemic is 
scarcely known. (Jhurches of different denominations are 
located all over the county and are within a sliort distance of 
every home. 

The school s^'steni is most excellent. The teachers are 
intelligent and painstaking. Tiiere are now 137 school houses 
owned by the county. In addition to the houses, the county 
rents 210 rooms for educational purposes. Four new school 
buildings were erected during the past year. The value of 
the school property owned by the county is $102,038, and the 
disbursements for school purposes during the year ending 
July, 1891, were $08,021.50. The i-ate of taxation is: State 
17f cents, and county, 78 cents, on the one hundred dollars. 

The area of the county is 435 square miles. According to 
the census of 1890, the population was 39,782, an increase of 
1,221 since the census of 1880. There are in the county 
37,191 white, and 2,590 colored persons. 

There are a number of thriving towns in the county, 
Hagerstown, the county seat, is beautifully situated in full 
view of the mountains, is supplied with gas and water, has two 
fine large hotels and a number of smaller ones, many handsome 
churches, stores and [)rivate residences, banks, etc. It has a 
population of 10,118, an increase of 3,491, over the census of 
1880, or 52.08 per cent. AVilliamsport is the next largest town, 
with a population of 1,277, and Sliarpsburg comes next, with 
a population of 1,163. Hancock, situated on the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Canal, and the great National Pike is also a pros- 
perous place. The town is stretched about a mile along the 
pike and contains a variety of industries. Here are located 
several saw mills, a sumac mill, and the famous Hound Top 



76 



cement works of Messrs Bridges & Henderson. The town 
contains a Catholic, a Protestant Episcopal, a Methodist, a 
Prssbjterian, and a colored church. The scenery in this 
locality is picturesque and there are many places of historic 
interest. Old Fort Frederick, the last relic of the French and 
Indian war in Maryland, is situated a short distance from the 
town, and the house of Michael Cresap, the Indian fighter, is 
still standing in fair preservation. 



THE EASTERN ISHORE. 

HOME OF THE DIAMOND-BACK TERRAPIN, THE OYSTER 
AND THE PEACH. 

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is one of the three sections 
into which the peninsula formed by the Chesapeake and 
Delaware bays and the Atlantic ocean is divided. The other 
two are the State of Delaware, contiguous on the east, and the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia, contiguous on the south. The 
Eastern Shore of Maryland comprises the counties of Cecil, 
Kent, Queen Anne's, Caroline, Talbot, Dorchester, Wicomico 
Somerset and Worcester. It is abundantly watered by half 
a dozen noble rivers, with many important tributaries, which 
with the waters of the bay, abound in choice fish and oysters" 
The famous diamond-back terrapin finds its chosen habitat in 
Eastern Shore waters, and the choicer varieties of wild duck, 
besides other game, are usually abundant in season. The soil 
is generally level and easily tilled. It is specially adapted to 
the cultivation of peaches and other fruits, which are raised in 
immense quantities, and to the raising of cereals, hay, live 
stock and a great variety of vegetables. The Eastern Shore 
counties are all provided with railroad facilities, which it is 



77 

proposed to increase by the construction of a line down the 
peninsula parallel to the Delaware Railroad. The Annapolis 
and Eastern Shore Railroad running through the lower 
counties, with a water terminus opposite Annapolis has been 
completed and is novr running. There has been a consider- 
able immigration from the North and VV^est in recent years, 
but there is still plenty of room. This section of the State 
has made rapid progress since the war. 

TERRAPINS. 

The Chesapeake diamond-back terrapin is as widely and 
as favorably known and appreciated as the Chesapeake 
ducks. They are caught all along the shores down as far as 
Accomae county, Va., on one side, and the Rappahannock 
river on the other. Below these points the water is too salty 
to produce a prime terrapin, as it toughens them. 

It is estimated that at the present time, $1,500,000, worth 
of terrapin is caught out of the Chesapeake Bay and its 
tributaries every year. As the price averages fully ^30 a 
dozen, this represents 600,000 terrapins annually. During 
the season over 500 men are engaged in catching them. 
They are caught on both sides of the bay, from the Rappa- 
hannock to Baltimore. They are found wherever the water 
cresses grow, and the Chesapeake Bay is the best body of 
water for this grass in the world. There are several methods 
of catching the terrapin, one is by dredge, another by a seine, 
• another by a net, and still another by a three pronged stick. 
With the latter, the catcher prods in the mud until he feels 
something move and then he reaches down for the diamond- 
back. 

THE OYSTER TRADE, 

The oyster industry of the Chesepeake Peninsula, when 
considered in its several branches of plantino-, dredg'inir. tono-- 
ing and packing, is something wonderful. It gives employ- 
ment to over fifty thousand people, and it is estimated that 
$10,000,000, of capital is employed and 115,000,000 of busi- 



78 



ness is done annually in this department of Maryland's 
industries. 

There are about one thousand boats, of an average ton- 
nage of fifty tons each, engaged in dredging for oysters for 
the Baltimore market and supplying vessels for other mar- 
kets. The average quantity dredged by each one of these 
boats during the oyster season is four thousand seven hun- 
dred and forty-six bushels. There are also fifteen hundred 
and fifty-five canoes engaged in tonging for oysters, and it 
is estimated that these canoes catch one-third as many oys- 
ters with tongs as are dredged by the one thousand boats. 

The oyster season begins about the middle of October, 
and lasts during the entire v.'inter, when the condition ot 
the harbor will permit the entrance of vessels. The num- 
ber of tin cans used in the business is estimated at twenty 
millions per annum. The cans are made at shops where 
nothing else is done, but many of the largest packers employ 
can makers, and have their own shops for the accommo- 
dation of their own business. 

The following statistics are extracted from a table which 
was carefully prepared fof the use of Mr. C iS. Maltby, and 
it makes an interesting exhibit, showing the quantity of 
oysters used annually, wiiere obtained, and the quantity 
assigned to Baltimore. The total number of bushels used 
is estimated at 6,945,000, of which 4,880,000 bushels are 
caught in Mar3dand waters, and 2,065,000 bushels in Vir- 
ginia waters. The number caught by dredging is estimated 
at 4,746,334, and with tongs 2,198,666 bushels. 

The amount assigned to Baltimore is used as follows: 

Bushels. 

Estimated quantity packed raw 1,875,000 

Estimated quantity preserved 1,360,000 

Estimated quantity city and country trade in 

shell 625,000 

Total 3,860,000 



79 



By far the greater portion of the oysters caught in the 
Chesapeake bay and the streams emptying into it are 
brought to the surface by the dredger, and so important has 
this industry become that legislative action regulating it has 
biennially come up before each session of the General 
Assembly of this State. 

To enforce the law, the State has a navy, consisting of 
four steamers, three schooners and seven sloops, which is 
supported by the $250,000, annually paid into the state 
treasury for dredgers' licenses. 

An oyster dredger (referring to the vessel) is almost al- 
ways a two-masted schooner. When her windlasses are 
removed from the deck, the only diiference between her and 
any similar craft is about midships on both sides, where the 
rail is cut down to the deck, for four or five feet and an iron 
roller inserted flush with the deck, over which the dredge 
line works. A pungy is properly, smaller than a dredging 
schooner, but of the same rig, and sometimes has no rail, 
but a strong stanchion is placed just abaft the roller. 

Each vessel is provided with two iron windlasses, which 
are fastened to the deck near the openings in the rail. As 
the law prohibits the use of steam in casting or hauling the 
dredges, these windlasses are arranged so as to admit of four 
men working upon each, two on each side of each windless. 
The handles slide upon an iron rod, and as soon as the 
dredge is on deck a rapid motion unships the handles, and 
the cylinder of the windlass can revolve as the dredge goes 
out, while the handles remain stationary. 

The dredges are iron bags capable of holding a little over 
two bushels. They are formed of rings connected with S 
hooks. They are about thirty inches square, and upon the 
lower edge of the opening are provided with an iron bar 
with projecting teeth, which scrapes the bottom of the 
stream as the dredge is being drawn after the boat, and 
guides the oysters into its mouth, which is held open by an 



80 



iron frame with bars projecting from each corner. These 
bars meet about four feet from the opening, and at their 
place of contact a chain is fastened, to which is attached a 
rope which goes around the windlass and is known as the 
dredge line. This line varies in length from twenty-five to 
sixty feet, according to the depth of water in which the 
dredging is done. 

The only other instrument used in dredging is the cap- 
tain's sounding pole, a slim rod about thirty feet long which 
he prods up and down in the water, in order to ascertain 
whether the vessel is over an oyster bed or not. 

The crew of an oyster dredger usually consists of a cap- 
tain and eight men. The captain is seldom owner of the 
vessel in which he sails, but works it on shares. Most of 
the schooners and pungies sailing out of Baltimore are the 
property of persons who own a fleet of vessels, sometimes 
twenty or more. Many of these owners are proprietors of 
houses of entertainment, where they board their captains 
and crews when on shore. 

The hardships undergone by dredgers are indescribable. 
Hour after hour, in all kinds of W'Cather, they work at the 
windlass pulling in two hundred or more pounds of oysters 
and the same weight of I'ope and dredge, and when that 
labor ceases, they are busy for hours more culling on deck 
or in the hold. This work is equally as tedious, tiresome 
and laborious as that at the windlass. In a stooping position 
with their feet about eighteen inches apart, they separate 
the shells from the oysters, dropping the former in front of 
them, while the latter they throw some distance behind 
them. Often after a night's hard work and but a brief rest 
they And the deck-load of oysters frozen in a solid mass. 
Then, with everything covered with a glare of ice, amidst 
a cutting sleet which freezes as it comes down, they are 
compelled to separate by hand each oyster from the other, 
and oittimes, with frozen limbs and aching backs and heads 



81 



they toil on unremittingly to save the cargo they have 
caught. 

When a vessel arrives upon the ground on which it is pro- 
posed to dredge, the captain takes his position at the wheels 
while the crew of eight men stand by the two windlasses. 
With his sounding pole the captain feels the bottom of the 
stream, the vessel all the while sailing as rapidly as the pre- 
vailing breeze will admit, and when convinced that he is 
over oysters, will cry out, "heave." Immediately, the 
dredges are caught up and thrown over the sides of the ves- 
sel. After a brief interval, a second order is given — "wind 
up" — when the windlass is manned and the dredge brought 
up on deck. The oysters and its other contents are dumped 
out and shoveled out of the way, while the dredge is again 
thrown, and again returned to the deck. This is continued 
until the captain finds that he is leaving the oyster bed, 
when the vessel is put about and returns, dredging parallel 
to her former course. Not all are oysters that come up ia 
the dredge. Sometimes over half or more of the contents 
are shells, and many curious things are also brought to the 
surface. One, two or more crabs frequently form a part of 
the catch; seaweed, iish, debris of various kind are also 
brought to the surface. Oysters are found adhering to all 
kinds of articles — pieces of iron, wood, leather and glass are 
found covered with bivalves of all sizes. If the dredging is 
done in the daytime, the oysters are culled as rapidly as 
possible as fast as caught; if at night, they are held until 
daylight. No rest is taken as long as the wind blows, 
except a brief interval for meals. 

Most of the oysters brought to Baltimore by dredgers are 
sold to raw and steam packers, the largest sizes to the 
former and the smaller to the latter. The oysters are not 
sorted by the captains or crew, but are sold as they are, for 
so much a bushel. If they present a fair appearance and 
are apparently large in size, they naturally bring a much 
higher price than if small. They are divided into three 
6 



82 



/clashes by the shuckers in the packing houses, and are 
known as "Selects," "Medium" and "Standards." These 
are packed in tin cans and buckets, kegs and barrels. Some 
dealers pick out the largest oysters before they are shucked 
and ship them in the shell or sell them for home consumption 
A bushel of shell oysters will generally produce a gallon 
when shucked, for which the shucker receives from fifteen 
to twenty cents per gallon. Rapid shuckers, if constantly 
employed for twelve hours a day, can open from fifteen to 
twenty bushels of oysters. 

In the steam-houses the 03'sters are slightly cooked before 
they are opened, and the work is mostly done by women 
and children. 

Most of the oysters used by restaurants and hotels in Balti- 
more and elsewhere are secured by tongs or nippers, and as 
a rule are superior in size to those caught by the dredges. 
The tongmen form a very large array of men engaged in 
catching oysters in Maryland waters, and while the quality 
and size of their product is much superior to that caught by 
dredgers, it is infinitely smaller, forming but a trifling pro- 
portion of what is annually taken from the bay. Tongs are 
used only in shallow water, and the oysters are caught from 
a small boat, generally operated by two men, one on either 
side. The tongs consist of a pair of rakes with the teeth 
curved inward and attached to wooden handles from fifteen 
to twenty feet long, which are joined by a pin about one- 
third of the distance from the iron. The tongman has a 
platform placed amidships across his little craft, and when 
over his beds he plunges his tongs into the water open, and 
working the handles secures a few oysters, not more than 
Haifa peck, and, closing the tongs, brings them up to the 
platform on his boat, where he culls them and makes a 
second dip. This he repeats until he has secured a boat- 
load, generally not over half-a-dozen bushels as the result 
of the labor of two men for an entire day. Planted oysters 
caught with tongs are very large and fine, and bring high 



83 



prices. The largest and finest oysters brought to the Balti- 
more market are caught with nippers, one at a time, in 
clear, shallow water, where the}' can be seen by the man 
sailing over them in a small boat. 

In addition to the oysters caught by dredgers and others 
in Maryland waters for consumption, there are many 
thousand bushels annually caught in the Chesapeake Bay 
for the purpose of transplanting in other waters, and this is, 
in itself, no inconsiderable branch of the business. They 
propagate rapidly, and mature in three or four years. 
It is estimated that the total annual oyster crop of the 
world is 8,903,000,000, of which North America furnishes 
5,572,000,000 bushels, the balance being divided among 
other countries. 

THE PEACH INDUSTKY. 

Fifty years ago the cultivation of peaches for the markets, 
was unknown in Maryland and Delaware. Only in certain 
sections of New Jersey was this interest looked upon as of 
any importance. The American people were not then such 
fruit eaters as they are now, and the limited supply was 
sufficient for the demand. As time progressed and rapid 
transit increased, the demand increased enormously, and the 
cultivation of peaches as a business grew into importance in 
both Delaware and Maryland. Men who had been indiffer- 
ent farmers, engaged in peach culture and grew suddenly 
rich. The brilliant success of different peach growers, cre- 
ated in the minds of the Delaware and Maryland land own- 
ers, the impression that peaches would prove for many years 
to be a most profitable crop, and as a result, every section of 
the peninsula, which comprises Delaware, the Eastern Shore 
of Maryland and of Virginia, is more or less interested in 
the cultivation of peaches, and it may safely be calculated 
that they are now growing on that peninsula upwards of 
twenty millions of peach trees. 



84 



It is estimated that there are upwards of sixty thousand 
acres of laud under peach trees in '^Maryland. IThis hind is 
the best on the peninsuhi, estimated to be worth;lifty dol- 
lars per acre or $3,000,000. To ship this fruit requires two 
millons of baskets, or nearly that Jmanj^ which costs $250,- 
000. The money invested in necessary implements for cul- 
tivating and shipping the peaches to market, is estimated 
at ten dollars for every one hundred trees, or $600,000. 
The cultivation of peach orchards and the picking of the 
fruit, gives employment to upwards of twenty-five thousand 
laborers. The growing to maturity of a peach orchard re- 
quires the expenditure of at least thirty dollars per acre, or 
upwards of $1,800,000 on the orchards of Maryland. Near- 
ly six millions of dollars of capital are now invested by 
these growers in peach culture. Among the heavy con- 
sumers of peaches during the season are the canners. This 
industry uses annually many thousand baskets of choice 
fruit. In Baltimore the canners are the principal buyers in 
the market; but after all the great bulk of peaches are 
eaten from the hand. And in past seasons it has been 
found that, however great the supply of good peaches was, 
there was always demand enough for them to effect sales 
at some price or other, of all that were offered on the mar- 
ket. And it has been only the poor and worthless fruit 
which has been thrown away. 

The culture of small fruit and vegetables is rapidly spread- 
ing on the Eastern Shore, the soil and climate of which are 
specially adapted to their successful [)roduction. With the 
constantly increasing facilities for reaching markets, and the 
steady accession of new population with the important re- 
sources of cash capital, energy, enterprise and the know- 
ledge of new methods and appliances, the Eastern Shore 
counties are pushing forward with remarkable rapidity, and 
as there is very little waste and unimprovable land they 
promise to become very soon a vast garden spot for the 
cultivation mainly of fruits and vegetables, although the 



85 



growing of grain and raising of live stock will continue to 
be important features of the peninsular husbandry for many 
years. The Eastern Shore is already well known to stock 
raisers for its fine herds of blooded cattle, its fast horses, its 
flocks of choice Southdown, Cotswold and Shropshire sheep, 
as well as for its delicious peaches and smaller fruits. The 
great variety of its products, in fact, and the recnarkuble re- 
cuperative qualities of its soil, under judicious treatment, 
afford the best gurantee of its future prosperity. 

There is a large quantity of fruit brandy manufactured on 
the Eastern Shore. The following figures for the fifteenth 
internal revenue division of the district of Maryland, com- 
prising the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore 
of Virginia counties, are from an official source: 



Counties. 



numbhr of 
Distilleries 



probuct in 
Tax Gallons. 




Kent, Md 

Caroline, Md 

Talbot, Md 

Dorchester, Md. 
Wicomico, Md.. 
Somerset, Md... 
Worcester, Md.. 
Accomac, Va.... 



Total 



Of which about 200 gallons is peach brandy and the rest 
apple brandy. The United States tax on this distillery pro- 
duct at ninety cents a gallon, is $8,631. 



86 



CECIL COUNTY. 



Cecil county, the northernmost of the Eastern Shore 
counties, is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the 
east by Delaware, on the south by Kent county, and on the 
west by Chesapeake bay and by the Susquehanna rivey, 
which separate it £rom Harford county. The population 
in 1890 was 25,851, divided as follows: White, 21,850; 
colored, 3,978. 

Cecil county contains 375 square miles, and the property 
of all kinds is assessed at $13,389,101. The county tax rate 
is 63 cents on the $100. The soil of the county includes 
almost every variety. The first district, Sassafras Neck, is 
chiefly a sandy loam, capable of being brought to the high- 
est state of productiveness. Many, if not all the farms, are 
now in a fine condition, producing large crops of wheat, 
corn, oats and clover. It has not been found well adapted 
to timothy, or at least but little attention is paid to timothy 
hay in that district. Some of the lands, composed largely 
of clay, grow well the natural grasses and are excellent pas- 
ture fields. This is the great peach-growing district of the 
county. The second district is much like the other. It 
includes the historic Bohemia Manor, ^vhich is called by 
some the garden spot of the county. The capabilities of 
most of the acreage of these districts have never been tested. 
They could be made to grow everything that can be grown 
in this latitude. A well-informed gentleman of Cecil 
county says he does not hesitate to state that finer lands are 
not to be found in the Middle States. The third or Elkton 
district embraces a greater variety of soil than either of the 
other districts named. It runs from a rich loam to an 
almost worthless clay or gravel. Grain, clover and timothy 
are raised and many cattle fattened on its fine pasture lands. 
The fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth districts are 
perhaps in a far higher state of improvement than the lower 
districts. The farms are smaller and the farmers practical 



87 



men of superior intelligence as farmers. From these dis^ 
tricts the Baltimore market is supplied with its well-known 
" Cecil county hay." There are tine dwellings in both the 
upper and lovvex districts of the county, and fine, large 
barns, especially in the former. Churches and schools afibrd 
every facility for religious and secular improvement. The 
fifth or Northeast district, the largest district in acreage, is- 
inferior as an agricultural country, containing a large acre- 
age of barrens. Many of its farms along the Northeast and 
Elk rivers are fine grain and truck land. 

Tobacco is cultivated to a small extent in the upper dis- 
tricts, and could be produced in large quantities. 

There is considerable unimproved land in the county^ 
which can be purchased at low figures, and give good oppor- 
tunities to poor but industrious immigrants. The transpor- 
tation facilities are good. The Philadelphia, Wilmington 
and Baltimore Railroad, and the Philadelphia extension of 
the Baltimore and Ohio, pass through the county from west 
to east. The Columbia and Port Deposit and Baltimore 
Central traverse some of the upper districts. Farmers in- 
the lower districts ship some by the Delaware Railroad^ 
which is within a few miles of the county. The Chesapeake 
and Delaware Canal, and Eik, Northeast, Sassafras and 
Bohemia rivers are also used extensively in transportation. 

The manufactures of Cecil represent considerable cap- 
ital and interests. The rolling mills and forges of the 
McCuUough Iron Company at Northeast, West Arawell and 
Rowlandsville employ several hundred men. George P. 
Whitaker has a blast furnace on Principio creek. The 
census of -1880, gave the amount invested in these iron' 
manufactories as $550,000. Paper manufacturing is also an 
old industry of Cecil. Wm. M. Singerly's Record paper- 
mills at Elkton, are an important industry to the town. 

Mr. Singerly bought the Providence Paper Mills in 1880' 
and built extensive pulp works in Elkton in 1883. In the? 



88 



pulp works one hundred and twenty men are employed and 
Bixty at the paper mills. At the latter 25,000 pounds of 
pulp are made per day, and 20,000 pounds of paper are 
made at the other. Both works run night and day. Con- 
tracts are also filled for government paper. George W". 
Child's Marley Paper Mills, which furnishes the Phila- 
delpha Ledger with paper, employs about 40 or 50 hands. 
Harlin & Bros, munufacture book-binders' pasteboard. 
Paper is also manufactured at the Cecil Mills, on the 
Octoraro river. 

The Scott Fertilizer Company, at Elkton employs many 
hands. The Waring Fertilizer Company has works at 
Colora, and the Eureka at Frenchtown. 

The Stone quarries at Port Deposit are an important 
industry. McClennahan Bros., at that place, employ from 
150 to 200 men, and Port Deposit stone goes to all parts of 
the country. B. C. Bibb & Son manufacture stoves, and 
Reynolds Brothers manufacture tin cans at Port Deposit. 
There are fire-brick, kaolin and pottery manufactories at 
Northeast. The population of this town is 1,249, an 
increase of 26.42 per cent., since the census of 1880. Two 
brick manufactories, the Elkton Foundry and Enterprise 
Machine Works, are at Elkton. There are many flouring 
mills in the county, some of which have the roller process. 
The Elk Mills, the only cotton manufactory in Cecil 
county, which have been closed for many months, were 
leased some time since by M. Gambrill & Co. 

The farmers of the county are replacing old machines 
with improved new ones, several dealers doing a large 
business in farming machinery. 

The live stock of the county has been improved during 
the past few years, doubtless caused greatly by competition 
for honors at the Cecil fair. 

Elkton the county seat, has'a population of 2,318, and has 
advanced 32.31 per. cent., since the census of 1880. Many 



89 



new dwellings have been erected or are in course of 
erection. A competent gentleman estimates the annual 
mercantile business of the town at $600,000. A business 
man of Cheapeake City estimates the business of that town 
at $400,000. It has a population of 1,155. Large business 
is also done at Port Deposit, Northeast and Rising Sun. 
There is land in the county valued at $100 per acre, and 
other land which can be purchased for $5.00 per acre. One 
of the greatest industries of Cecil county is the shad and 
herring fisheries on the Susquehanna, Northeast and Elk 
rivers. 

KENT COUNTY. 

Kent county to-day stands in the very front rank of 
Maryland counties, and it is safe to say that the 
most beautiful and productive section of the celebrated 
Cumberland Valley cannot surpass the high state of cultiva- 
tion or productiveness shown by the results secured to the 
Kent county farmer. All progressive measures along the 
line of agriculture or horticulture have always found a ready 
lodgment in Kent county soil, and have flourished and 
brought forth fruit until superseded by some more advanced 
and better systems. The Grange has done a good work, 
and farmers' clubs, peach growers' associations and similar 
organizations having in view some specific object, are all in 
active operation. The Still Pond Farmers' Club is one 
of the most aggressive organizations of the kind in the 
State, has a large membership, and continues to achieve 
magnificent results along the line of agricultural and horti- 
cultural investigations and experiments. The disposition of 
the farming community throughout the county to adopt more 
improved methods and advanced ideas in the cultivation of the 
soil has had a good eftect, and a speaker at a recent meeting 
of farmers declared that by the adoption of scientific and 
still higher principles of fertilization and cultivation, it is 
believed that the productiveness of these already fertile 
lands may be doubled. 



90 



— The surface of the county is beautifully undulating or 
rolling, while the soil, though varied, is, for the most part, 
of a dark loam, fertile, warm and easily worked. Under- 
lying this is a rich and deep clay subsoil, making geological 
conditions calculated to produce the most satisfactory 
results. - 

Though, as a rule, the county is in a high state of culti- 
vation and the land commands correspondingly good prices, 
yet there are many acres possessing all desirable qualities 
which have not as yet been so Ixighly improved or developed, 
which invite the immigrant, offering a pleasant home and 
abundant and speedy returns for his labors. Under the 
financial depression which has existed during the several 
years past, lands which at one time sold for from one hun- 
dred to one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre, may 
now be bought at a much lower figure. The scale of prices 
for lands in the county might be put: Eighty or eighty-five 
dollars for the best and twenty dollars per acre for the 
lowest, grading from that up according to quality, improve- 
ment and location. 

- The soil is adapted to the cultivation of the cereals, fruits 
and grass, thus offering advantages to the agriculturist, 
horticulturist, trucker or stock raiser. It is claimed that 
under the impetus and stimulus given by the introduction 
of creameries, the value of stock in the county has more than 
doubled within the past five years, thus placing the county 
as one of the first cattle-producing sections in the State. " 

The climate is delightful and healthful, the thermometer 
rarely ever reaches 96° in mid-summer, or falling below 10° 
during the winter months. Fever and ague are almost 
things of the past, and low fatal fevers are not more common 
than in the most heathful sections of the State. Contagious 
diseases of a malignant form and epideinlcs are almost un- 
known. 



91 

The public school system of the county, it is safe to say, 
is not surpassed by any county in the State, the school- 
houses being conveniently located and the schools taught 
by a most thorough and efficient corps of teachers. 

Nearly every religious denomination is rej)re8ented in the 
population, and Catholic, Methodist Episcopal, Protestant 
Episcopal, Methodist Protestant and Presbyterian churches 
are found at convenient distances tliroughout the county. 

That unchanging hospitality and sincerity of social rela- 
tions which is a characteristic of the entire Eastern Shore 
ef Maryland is developed here to a prominent degree; the 
stranger may rest assured of a kindly welcome and thought- 
ful consderation when he crosses the boarders of this county. 
Fine water power is afforded for milling purposes in vari- 
ous sections, and all of the coarser bread material, and much 
of the finest patent-roller process flour, are turned out by 
fine mills located on natural streams. 

Though particularly adapted to agriculture, the lands of 
Kent have been found to be all that could be desired for a 
successful cultivation of the peach, pear and all of the more 
profitable small fruits; indeed, it might be said that this 
county is now, and has been for years past, the great peach 
garden of the Maryland and Delaware peach belt, the county 
furnishing nearly two millions of packages of peaches alone 
to the markets of the world during the season of 1891. - 

Situated as it is, with the Chesepeake bay sweeping its 
western borders, the Sassafras and Chester rivers forming 
its northern and southern boundaries, it is protected, to a 
great extent, from the destructive effects of frost.-- The 
peach has absorbed, in a greater measure possibly than any 
other crop, the attention of the people, and vast tracts of 
the most fertile lands of the county are in peach orchards, 
stretching away miles in length. All of the Maryland 
fruits are largely cultivated, and form sources of extensive 
revenue. 



92 

As a section having an enviable record for large yields of 
corn and wheat, this county stands second to none in the 
State, her best lands yielding from forty to forty-live, and as 
high as forty-seven bushels of wheat per acre, with a 
minimum yield in exceptional instances of twelve bushels. 
The corn crop runs as high as eighty and as low as twenty 
bushels per acre. Many farmers have devoted much atten- 
tion to grass, and with the introduction of vast creamery 
and dairy interests in nearly every district, it has been 
clearl}^ demonstrated that the lands are capable of magnifi- 
cent possibilities in the direction of growing grass. Already 
the products of the dairy have become sources of great 
wealth to the farmer. In addition to this, it has resulted in 
the introduction of superior grades of dairy cattle, and it 
may be doubted whether any county in the State can show 
finer herds of thoroughbred Holstein and other high bred 
stock. Indeed, stock raising has become an important and 
profitable industry, which, with its dairy profits, stand 
second only to the cultivation of grain and fruit. 

The question which naturally presents itself is: What 
cause to a greater extent than any other has been conducive 
to this high state of general agricultural development? 
The answer is given— accessibility to market, an abundance 
of good labor and excellent transportation facilities.^ There 
is scarcely any section of the county which is further than a 
thirty or forty minutes' drive from either rail or water.- 
During the summer months seven steamboat lines touch the 
county daily, and during the heavy freighting seasons, 
extra boats are frequently put on to meet the demands. 
The Baltimore and Delaware Bay Railroad traverses almost 
the entire length of the county, while a branch of the Penn- 
sylvania Road touches at Millington and Massey's, on the 
northeastern border. Scarcely less than twenty sail vessels 
ply constantly between the rivers and Baltimore city. What 
county can show a more extended array of commercial 
facilities? By rail, Kent is brought within two hours of 



93 



Wilmington, two and a-liulf or three hours of Phihiclelphia, 
four hours of Kew York, bring her into accessibility of the 
great markets of the west and northwest, Baltimore is but 
two hours from some sections and w^ithin a five hours' run 
by steamer from lier farthest points. Iler river and bay 
frontage offer excellent ports. 

Having one of the most extended water-fronts of any 
county in the State, it may readily be seen that the oyster 
and fish interests are valuable. Thousands of the popula- 
tion live exclusively from the products of the water, and 
several comfortable and beautiful villages have sprung up 
on the shore contiguous to the vast oyster fields alono- the 
bay> The rivers teem with fish and oysters. Swan and 
wild geese and the canvas-back, red-head, black-head and 
other choice varieties of ducks are numerous on the waters 
while excellent gunning is found in the interior of the 
county. 

The area of the county is 315 square miles. The census 
of 1890, gave the county a population of 17,471, divided as 
follows: white, 10,416, colored, 7,055. 

Chestertown the county seat, is a prosperous town of 
2,632 inhabitants, and is situated on Chester river, about 
thirty miles from its mouth. Here is an excellent harbor 
extended wharf front, and navigable water suflicient for 
steamers and the larger class of sailing vessels. The town 
is alive to the spirit of enterprise. A board of trade has 
been formed, and special inducements in the matter of free 
sites, exemption from taxation and other advantages are 
oflered to manufactures settling within her limits. The 
manufactories already in operation are the extensive plant 
of the American Strawboard Company; the large paper- 
basket works, under the same corporation, both plants 
being valued at several hundred thousand dollars; an ice- 
factory, creamery, a new patent process roller flouring mill 
extensive brick works, several phosphate factories, planl 



94 



ing and sawmill, sash and door factory, foundry, wagon 
and carriage works. It has two banks, two newspapers, 
four churches, an excellant public school, and one of the 
finest water supplies in the State. 

Washington College, one of the oldest and raost efficient 
educational institutions in the State, is also situated here. 
The surrounding country is fertile and beautiful, while, 
socially, Chestertown is, like the entire county, character- 
ized by that genial hospitality which reigns as a most 
striking feature of the social life. 

The biographical history of Kent bears some of the most 
prominent names of the State, namely : The Pearces, Vick- 
ers, Ringgold, Hanson, Raisin, Wilkins, Wroth and many 
others. 

Kent may challenge any county in the Sti^te to ofier 
greater inducements to the immigrant, the manufacturer or 
the investor. Rich in her natural resources of soil, climate, 
location and general healthfulness. Kent invites all to 
share her blessings and advantages. A land of splendid 
opportunities, she offers a home alike to the poor but 
honest immigrant, the manufacturer or the retired mer- 
chant or man of business in quest of a home. ~ 

QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY. 

Of the nine counties embraced in what is called the 
"Eastern Shore," none offer greater attractions to the agri- 
culturist, the capitalist or the pleasure-seeker, than Queen 
Anne's. With a most delightful climate, a soil that yields 
almost anything that the former a^ks from it, her rivers and 
bay abounding in oysters, fish, crabs and "diamond back" 
terrapin, her shores alive with wild geese, dncks and swan, 
ahe is a very paradise of the sportsman, and with her fields 
of golden grain and luscious fruits, oilers to capitalists every 
inducement for investment. 

Occupying an almost central position in the tier of coun- 
ties lying between Chesapeake bay and the Atlantic, Queen 



95 

Anne's is situated upon Chester river, a broad, bold stream, 
and is also washed by the waters of Wye river and Eastern 
bay, while Corsica river divides it. These waterways furn- 
ish most favorable nieans of transportation, and steamboats 
utilize them to the fullest extent, while lines of schooners 
and other craft are constantly in motion, transporting her 
grain and other products to Baltimore and elsewhere, or 
bringing return cargoes of merchandise and other domestic 
supplies to her shores. 

While some portions of her land are flat — notably the 
river bottoms — yet very much of it is high, and wonderfully 
adapted to the needs of the farmer. The higher lands are 
of a rich loam with clay sub-soil — very fertile and easy of 
cultivation — while the bottoms are of a stifter quality, 
heavily topped with rich alluvial deposits. 

Fewer sections of the country produce finer crops of 
wheat and corn than Queen Anne's, the average yield of 
wheat being from eighteen to twenty-two bushels per acre, 
though at times and in certain favored localities, over forty 
bushels per acre have been harvested and housed, weisrhino- 
sixty-two pounds per bushel. The average of corn is about 
fifty bushels per acre, but many farms far exceed this 
amount, and the nearness to market and cheap transporta- 
tion enable the farmers to favorably compete even with the 
great West. Splendid crops of timothy and clover are 
grown all over the county, adding another to the many 
attractions offered the farmer seeking a home, clover being 
one of the best fertilizers, and furnishing one among the 
best pasturages for stock of all kinds. 

Kent Island, an important part of this county (known at 
home as Little Britian), is a rich and fertile section, nothing 
behind the rest of the county in its yields of cereals and 
other crops. Being surrounded by water — by the bay in 
parts, and by Chester river in another direction — she is the 
natural dwelling-place of oysters, terrapin and game of 



96 

every description, all of which add largely to her wealth, 
besides offering to the sportsman an introduction to the 
home of the wild goose, duck and swan, and to the epicure 
or o-ourmand the most toothsome of delicacies. A dish of 
terrapin, prepared as only an Eastern Shore "auntie" can, 
would tempt the soul of an anchorite. 

Among Queen Anne's chiefest productions outside of 
cereals, are peaches, pears and small fruits, that find ready 
and remunerative sale in Baltimore, Philadelphia, ISTew 
York and Boeton, and even as far west as Chicago and other 
points. There was shipped from this county during the 
year 1891, some 100,000 baskets and boxes of peaches; 
20,000 baskets of pears, 5,000 crates of strawberries and 
blackberries, while thousands of bushels of apples were left 
to rot in the orchards or to be eaten by the hogs, because 
the farmers were so overwhelmed with the production of 
other things that they could not care for them. 

The people are a sturdy race, honest, industrious, pro- 
gressive and hospitable, always glad to welcome strangers, 
especially those coming among them seeking homes. They 
are good farmers, understanding the demands of their lands, 
and ready and willing to meet them, as their well-cultivated 
fields and charming homes abundantly testify. 

Schools and churches of all denominations shed their 
benefits over the land, the school system being unsurpassed 
and under the direction of most eificient teachers. There 
is no excuse for any one living in ignorance in this favored 
county. The colored population, of whom there is a large 
percentage, have the same advantages as their white neigh- 
bors enjoy, and, for the most part, lead happy, contented 
lives, always striving to elevate their race. This portion of 
the community furnishes the greater part of the labor 
required for the cultivation of soil. 

The tax rate has advanced within the year 1891, owing to 
the laro-e outlay in buying the Chester river bridge at Ches- 



97 



tertown, in order that it might forever be a free highway, 
and building new and repairing ohl bridges tliroughout the 
county. But with all this to meet, the rate is only ninety- 
three cents on the $100. The total assessable property in 
the county is $7,300,397. 

The area of the county is 352 square miles, and accord- 
ing to the census of 1890, it has a population of 18,461, 
divided as follows: whites, 11,816; colored, 6,645. 

Queen Anne's County is proverbially healthy. There 
have been no epidemics, no local diseases, fever and ague 
having been completely eradicated by a general system of 
drainage, and a thorough, clean cultivation of lands. 

The climate is simply delightful, neither bitterly cold in 
winter nor intensely hot in summer; neither do the people 
suffer from those fearful storms of wind that embitter life 
and are so destructive to property in many other sections, 
the position between the bay and the ocean seeming to act 
as a sort of anodyne upon the furies of the storms. 

The prices of land range from $15 to $75 per acre, the 
latter price being only demanded for land in the highest 
state of cultivation, or occupying an enchanting position on 
the water, and with correspondingly handsome improve- 
ments, while the cheap lands, as they are esteemed when 
held at the very low figure of $15 to $20, are those that 
have been neglected, and, from want of care and incessant 
wretched cultivation, allowed to go behind, and thus depre- 
ciate in value. Yet, these low-priced lands, in the hands of 
a good farmer having some means to expend in their re- 
demption, soon respond to kind attention, and rapidly en- 
hance in value, until they reach the summit in price. This 
has been thorouo^hly demonstrated and exemplified through 
the two largest farmers in the county, Gen. Wm. McKenney 
and Senator John B. Brown. 

If a capitalist from any section i.s seeking a remunerative 
investment or a summer home for his family, then no sec- 
7 



98 



tion offers superior inducements to Queen Anne's County. 
All that she lacks is manufactories, and she presents advan- 
tages for this character of industries rarely excelled. Nearly 
every farm on the bay and rivers has sufficient depth of 
water for any sea-going craft to find a landing, many ot 
them having private wharves or piers; and her proximity 
to the great business centers, being only a few hours' ride 
by water or rail from Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New 
York, with the cheapest transportation that can be devised, 
should surely attract the attention of capital and enterprise. 
Centreville, the shire town, comprising a population of 
1,309 citizens, is situated near the head of Corsica river, 
upon a beautiful elevation some two hundred or three hun- 
dred feet above sea level, and about a half a mile from the 
steamboat wharf, and is one of the prettiest villages to be 
found anywhere. It has three weekly newspapers, two na- 
tional banks, a large hotel, churches of nearly every denomi- 
nation, a high school for girls and an academy for boys, both 
in charge of efficient teachers and belonging to the free 
school system. The people are refined and cultivated, still 
clinging to the simple, unalloyed habits and customs of the 
palmy days of their sires. Church Hill, Sudlersville and 
Queenstown are also prosperous towns, and there are a 
number of a smaller villages. 

CAROLINE COUNTY. 

Probably no county in the State has improved more' 
rapidly during the past two decades than Caroline, the in- 
land county of the Eastern Shore. Caroline county is 
bounded on the north by Queen Anne's, on the east by Del- 
aware, on the south by Dorchester, and on the west by Tal- 
bot and Queen Anne's. It is watered by the Choptank and 
tributary streams. Denton, the county seat, is on the Chop- 
tank, at the head of steamboat navigation. The soil varies 
from sandy loam to heavy "white oak." The former is 
confined principally to the east side of the Choptank river. 



99 



extending from one-fourth of a mile to two miles from the 
stream. This sandy land is admirably adapted to the pro- 
duction of vegetables and small fruits, when properly en- 
riched and managed. These crops in many cases have been 
found much more lucrative than the wheat crops of the 
heavy clay land. The heavier grades of soil are not ex- 
celled for the growing of wheat and corn. As much as 
forty-eight bushels of wheat per acre has been harvested 
from the famous Tuckahoe i^eck, a fertile tract of about 
fifteen square miles, lying between the Ohoptank and Tuck- 
ahoe rivers, and on the south side of the county road leading 
from Denton to Ilillsboro. Condition and situation govern 
the price of land in this county, running from $5 to ^75 per 
acre. Land has of late years materially increased in value, 
though good light land can still be bought for from $10 to 
$15 per acre. Wheat, rye, oats, corn and hay are the prin- 
cipal farm crops, while fruit in variety, such as peaches, 
apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, raspberries, black- 
berries, strawberries, &c., are grown. Peaches and small 
fruits reach a perfection here and in the lower part of the 
peninsula that has made the region famous. Outside or 
sweet potatoes, vegetables are not yet extensively grown for 
market, but the earliness with which nearly all kinds of 
garden vegetables can be grown on the lighter soils is 
beginning to receive consideration. This, coupled with the 
fact of having ample transportation fiicilities with the great 
eastern cities, via the Delaware Railroad sytem and steam- 
boats from Denton to Baltimore, will in the near future 
develop this interest to the extent it deserves. From a good 
portion of these light lands there is daily communication by 
three rival lines of steamers to the metropolis of the State, 
while the northern and southern parts ot the county each 
have railroad facilities for placing their products in a few 
hours in the markets of Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston. 

Improved farm machinery has within the last decade 
annihilated the more primitive appliances in that relation, 



100 



while farm stock of all kinds has received its full and just 
measure of attention. There has been a steady tide of 
immigration from Northern States into Caroline county 
since the war, but there is room for many more settlers. 

The manufactures of Caroline county, except the exten- 
sive canning interests, are meagre. 

The burning of charcoal is an industry in the lower part 
of the county, and the pine forests north of Federalsburgh 
have yielded many tons of the product, and from the ground 
thus cleared farms have sprung as if by magic. A kindling- 
wood factory, aiibrding employment for several scores of 
persons, has for some time been in successful operation at 
Federalsburgh. Roller mills for the manufacture of the 
patent process flour have also been recently built at Denton. 
They have a grinding capacity of 55 barrels of flour daily. 

By far the leading industry of the county is its extensive 
fruit-packing interest. The pioneers in this enterprise are 
A. B. Roe and Joseph H. Bernard. Both have been emi- 
nentl}' successful, and of late j-ears their establishments have 
packed jointly nearly one million cans per year. Other can- 
neries have since started at Greensboro, Marydel, Bethlehem, 
Choptank and American Corner. Peaches and tomatoes 
are the staples, and many acres are devoted to growing the 
latter, the packers paying $6 per ton for them. Whortle- 
berries, corn, peas and pears, are also canned successfully. 
These houses give employment to about 1,500 persons. 

Fruit-evaporating is also an important industry, and 
many hundred pounds of fruit are annually produced from 
evaporators that stand near almost every large orchard, to 
use the fruit when prices are too low for shipping. The 
retail mercantile business of the county amounts to almost 
$1,000,000 per annum. Of this the business of each of the 
towns of Greensboro, Denton, Hillsboro and Federalsburg 
amounts to $100,000 yearly. Northern immigration has 
greatly aided the progress of the county, and some of these 
immigrants are among tlic most successful farmers and mer- 



101 



chants. The mild climate, cheap lands and the ease with 
which these can be cultivated are still drawing settlers from 
Pennsylvania, New York, the ITew England States, and even 
Canada. 

The population of Caroline county, according to the cen- 
sus of 1890, was 13,903, divided as follows: White, 10,008; 

colored, 3,895. The area of the county is 315 square miles, 

■ 

TALBOT COUNTY. 

Talbot is the most central of the nine counties of the 
Eastern Shore. It is bounded on three sides by navigable 
gait water. The rivers, creeks and estuaries tributary to the 
Chesapeake and Eastern Bays penetrate every section of the 
county, and there is not a farm even in the 'interior" over 
three miles from navigation. Its area is 285 square miles. 
The Delaware and Chesapeake Railroad, steamboat lines on 
the Choptank, Third Haven, Tuckahoe, Miles and Wye 
rivers and the Eastern Bay, and sailing vessels on all the 
waters furnish transportation facilities. The soil is princi- 
pall}^ a red clay loam in the northern and western parts of 
the county, and a white oak in the salt water sections. 
Farm lands are worth from $25 to $125 an acre, according 
to location and condition of improvement. The cereals, hay, 
peaches and other orchard fruits, with small fruits, berries, 
and vegetables, are the products. Large yields of all these 
products are raised in Talbot. At present, fruit-growing 
and truck culture are receiving much attention, and are 
becoming very profitable. 

Talbot fjirmers keep up with the times in the use of all 
the improved farm implements and machinery, and new 
inventions or improvements are given practical trial here as 
ioon as anywhere else in the country. Stock-raising, includ- 
ing horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, receive particular atten- 
tion, several Talbot fanners being importers and breeders on 
a larare scale. 



102 



Talbot is deficient in manufactures. There are a straw- 
board paper niill, two flour mills, two fertilizer factories, a 
planing-mill, a brick and tile 3'ard, a broom factory and 
a basket factory at Easton ; a ship-yard at Oxford, and three 
at St. Michael's; fruit and oyster canneries at St. Michael's 
and Oxford; large lumber and planing mills at Tunis' Mills, 
and smaller ones elsewhere ; a brickyard at St. Michael's, 
and also at Oxford, and grist mills in various sections. It 
is believed there are peculiar advantages in the county for 
the establishment of woolen mills, flour mills on a large 
scale, an agricultural implement factory and other industries. 
The population of Talbot county by the census of 1890 
w^as white 12,148; colored 7,587; total 19,736. 

Talbot has for several years been an attractive section to 
immigrants. The climate, the soil, the character of the peo- 
ple, its splendid schools and numerous churches, its trans- 
portation facilities, its accessibility to New York, Philadel- 
phia, Baltimore and Washington, its healthfulness, are 
amongst its advantages, and in its population of indepen- 
dent, thrifty and prosperous citizens are many who have 
come to Talbot from other States and countries since 1870. 
The incorporated towns are Easton, population 2,939, St. 
Michael's, population 1,329, Trappe and Oxford, with a 
population of 1305. Cordova, Royal Oak, Tunis' Mills, 
Hambleton, Wittman, Longwood, Matthews, McDaniel, 
Wye Mills, Skipton, Sherwood and Island City, are thriving 
villages. Easton has a business ranging from a million to a 
million and a half dollars annually, and has some of the hand- 
somest and largest stores and other business establishmenti 
to be found on the peninsula. The area of country trade that 
seeks Easton is very large, embracing all of Talbot, a large 
portion of Caroline, and parts of Dorchester and Queen 
Anne's counties. Oxford and St. Michael's, with their ship- 
yards and railways and large oyster and crop industries and 
mercantile trade, are prosperous towns when "times are 
good;" but being situated on peninsulas, with no back 
country, and with facilities that make it almost as easy to 



103 

go to tlie city to do shopping as to do it in town, the mer- 
cantile business is restricted in both these towns. Trappe 
has a kirge and wealthy section of farming country to draw 
from, and can show a business of $150,000 a year. 

DORCHESTER COUNTY. 

Dorchester county has an area of 610 square miles, and is 
bounded on the north by Caroline county and the Choptank 
river, which separates it from Talbot county, on the east by 
Delaware and the INanticoke river, separating it from Wi- 
comico, on the south by the waters of Somerset county, and 
on the west by the Chesapeake bay. According to the cen- 
sus of 1890 the population was 24,843, divided as follows: 
white, 16,035; colored, 8,808. 

The soil varies from stiff clay to sand and black loam. 
The surface is generally level, but easy of drainage, and in 
the northern sections is somewhat undulating, giving rise 
to some water-power, which is utilized for saw and grist- 
mill purposes. Marl is found in large quantities, possessing 
excellent fertilizing qualities. The price of land varies, 
according to the location, from $5 to $50 per acre, the 
average price about $25. The staples are wheat and corn, 
but oats, rye, potatoes, and the choicest fruits and berries 
are also produced in large quantities, and find a ready 
market by steamers to Baltimore, and by rail to Phila- 
delphia, New York and other iTorthern and Western 
markets. The facilities for transportation are unexcelled. 
The county can be almost circumnavigated, and is also cut 
up with many inlets and creeks, where the luxuries of the 
water, with wild fowl abound, making many desirable 
water-sites, and affording to a large majority the means of 
transportation by steamer and sailing packets, almost at the 
farmers' doors. Two daily lines of steamers to and from 
Baltimore — the Maryland Steamboat Company and the 
Choptank Steamboat Company — touch at points bordering 
the Choptank. On the Little Choptank, which traverses a 



104 



fertile and prosperous section, a different line of steamers to 
and from Baltimore also plies, while the Nantieoke river, 
which forms the dividing line between Dorchester and 
Wicomico, also furnishes excellent steam transportation for 
freight and passengers through the steamers of the IS'anti- 
coke Steamboat Company. The northern section of the 
county is penetrated by the Cambridge and Seaford Rail- 
road, which connects at Seaford with the Delaware Road. 
The character of the soil is so diversified that it is capable 
of producing any and all classes of produce, but is more 
especially adapted to trucking. Within the past few years 
Dorchester county has largely improved in its methods of 
farming by the introduction of machinery. Great interest 
18 manifested in stock-raising, and the grade of stock has 
increased 100 per cent. 

The manufacturing interests are as yet limited, but in- 
creasing. The facilities are inviting. Canning oysters, 
fruits and vegetables are carried on at Cambridge, Vienna, 
East New Market, Secretary, and at other points. Cam- 
bridge is the largest town on the Eastern Shore, and the 
most prosperous. According to the census of 1890, it con- 
tained 4,192 persons, an increase of 1,930 over the census 
of 1880, or more than 85 per cent. At Cambridge there 
are several phosphate factories and a large flouring and 
hominy mills. At Cambridge and other points there are 
large quantities of oak, pine and hickory timber. Ship- 
building is also carried on. The general mercantile busi- 
ness transacted in the several towns of Dorchester county 
will amount by estimate to $2,225,000. The inducements 
for industrious immigrants are most excellent. The oyster 
interests conflict greatly with farming on account of scarcity 
of labor, caused by the more lucrative employment to be 
obtained during part of the year in the oyster trade. There 
are many acres of languishing land which could be pur- 
chased at a cheap price and made to yield abundant crops. 
The people are genial and hospitable, and there is a liberal 



105 



provision of schools and churches of various denomiaations. 
The climate is healthy. 

WICOMICO COUNTY. 

Wicomico county, in the southern part of the Eastern 
Shore, is contiguous to Dorchester county on the north and 
west, the State of Delaware on^the north; Worcester county 
on the east, and Somerset county on the south. Its area is 
369 square miles. The soil is of great variety. In that 
portion of the county bounded by the Pocoraoke river on the 
east and the Delaware line on th€ north and northeast, a 
black loam soil is found, which is the most productive corn 
and oat land in the county. In the sections bordering on 
the Wicomico and Pocomoke Railroad, where the land is 
higher, grass is grown abundantly ,'and in dry seasons the 
strawberry crop is large. 

In the western section of the county, composed of Salia 
bury, Quantioo, Tyaskin, Barren Creek and Sharptown dis- 
tricts, bounded by the Wicomico and Nanticoke rivers, the 
soil is greatly diversified. From the town of Salisbury to 
Rockawalking, and from that point on a line running north 
and south to the two rivers, the lands are elevated, the soil 
of a light sandy loam, and for early vegetables, small fruits 
and peaches, this section has not its equal for production on 
the peninsula. Wheat is also grown here with some success, 
as much as 20 and 25 bushels per acre being raised by pro- 
gressive farmers, and the melon crop is extensive. 

The land southwest of Rockawalking, taking in Quantico 
district and a part of Tyaskin, is stitf, of white and red clay, 
well adapted to corn, wheat, oats, grasses and anytliing that 
a stiff soil will produ"e. The wheat and clover fields in this 
section will compare favorably with those of any of the upper 
counties. Peaches, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries 
and peas are now being raised extensively and successfully. 
In those parts of Tyaskin, Quantico, Barren Creek and 
Sharptown districts, bordering on Nanticoke river, where 



106 



land is liglit, watermelons are the most profitable crop. 
More than one million melons are shipped from this section 
annually to Baltimore and Northern markets. Land in the 
sections described ranges in price from $10 to $50 per acre, 
depending entirely on the state of improvements and 
proximity to shipping points. 

Sharptown, Riverton, Barren Creek, Quantico, Tyaskin 
and Nanticoke, towns in the western part of the county, 
depend largely for transportation on steamboats and vessels. 
The largest part of the perishable fruit raised, however, in 
the vicinity of some of these towns, is hauled to Salisbury 
or Delmar, a distance of ten or twelve miles, to be shipped 
by rail to Northern markets via N. Y., P. and N. Railroad, 
and the P. and D. Railroad. The steamer Enoch Pratt, 
Mar3'land Steamboat Company, trades on the Wicomico 
river between Salisbury and Baltimore. The farmers on 
both sides of this river, below Salisbury, ship their fruit by 
this route to Baltimore. Transportation facilities for the 
eastern part of the county are supplied by the N. Y., P. 
and N. Railroad, and also by the Wicomico and Poeomoke 
Railroad. Perishable fruit is shipped exclusively to the 
big northern markets. The necessity for improved farm 
machinery is beginning to be generally felt, an<i the latest 
implements are being rapidly introduced. 

The principal manufacturing industry of the county is 
the lumber business. About 14,000,000 feet of planed 
lumber is manufactured annually. Of this quantity Salis- 
bury has nearly 8,000,000. Independent of this, the firm 
of E. E. Jackson & Co. uses between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000 
feet of Virginia boards for making oil cases. A large 
quantity of the home-made lumber is utilized by different 
factories in manufacturing peach baskets and strawberry 
crates and boxes. This business is growing extensively, 
and nearlj- every town has its factory. 

There are large quantities, and it may be an inexhaustible 
supply, of bog iron ore, just above Barren Creek Springs, 



107 



that awaits enterprise and capital for their devciopnieiit. 
On the streams are several mills, with an adequate supj:)ly 
of water for many raauufacturini^ purposes, 

Salisbury, the county seat, is one of the most flourishing- 
and enterprising towns on the peninsula. Although nearly 
destroyed by tire several years ago, it has been almost 
entirely rebuilt and improved in appearance. The annual 
volume of its mercantile business is estimated at $1,000,000, 
There are also a number of other prosperous towns, and the 
county is progressing in all directions. In the variety of its 
soil, mildness of climate, excellent facilities of transporta- 
tion, and cheapness of unimproved lands, Wicomico otters 
special inducements to immigrants. The population of 
Salisbury is 2,905, an increase of 12,55 per cent, over the 
census of 1880. The population of the county, according 
to the census of 1890, was 19,930, divided as follows : 
Whites, 14,600; colored, 5,330. 

SOMERSET COUNTY. 

Somerset county is the southernmost county of the 
Eastern Shore. It is bounded on the north by Wicomico, 
on the east by Wicomico and Worcester, on the south by 
Pocomoke river and sound, and on the west by Chesapeake 
bay. The area, including islands, is 526 square miles. " The 
system of farming in Somerset county has, in the last ten 
years, undergone many changes, and the great wheat 
harvest, which in other days was the busiest season of the 
year, has, to a large extent, given place to what is commonly 
called the trucking season, when the strawberries, peas, 
wax-beans, potatoes, etc, follow each other in quick 
succession to market. With these developments, new 
opportunities are ottered to the man of moderate means and 
small quantities of land, to make farming profitable. Being 
the southernmost county of the Eastern Shore, the mild 
climate and soils are well adapted to fruit growing and 
trucking; this branch of farming has grown to large propor- 



108 



tions. In 1858 a two^horse wagon would convey at a single 
load all the fruits and vegetables shipped to the market 
each day from Somerset. Now the shipments reach seventy- 
five carloads per day in the heavy part of the season. This 
enables the large landholder to diversify his crops, and the 
smaller ones to make farming profitable. Strawberries 
make the most important of all the crops, known as 
trucking crops, the average of the crop per acre being about 
$150, clear of gathering and marketing, in a favorable year. 
The soil, being mostly of the pipe-clay, and the loose black 
kind, with some mixture of red clay, is specially adapted to 
the growth of such produce. Land can be purchased at 
almost any price from $10 to $50 per acre, according 
to location, improvements and the state of cultivation. 
The soil is also adapted to the growth of hay, and this branch 
of farming, though much neglected, could be made profitable. 
The cleared lands are capable of being divided into smaller 
farms to advantage, and woodland abounds that can be pur- 
chased at reasonably small sums and easily reduced to a good 
state of cultivation, thus atFording opportunities to industrious 
immigrants that are perhaps unknown to many who seek more 
distant fields of labor. The canning industry in the county 
is ^.quite an important item to farmers near the packing- 
houses, of which there are several in the county. The pack 
of the county is about half a million cans of peaches, toma- 
toes, berries, &c,, but principally tomatoes. There are two 
roller flour mills, one at Princess Anne, the other at West- 
over. These, with several steam saw-mills, are the principal 
manufacturing industries. 

There are man}' peach orchards in the county. The trees 
grow splendidly on the red clay and sandy loam soils, and 
bear fine fruit. The opinion with Delaware peach-growers 
is gaining strength that the peach section is fast moving 
down the peninsula. The death of trees by yellows, and 
vast quantities of premature fruit in many orchards in 
Delaware appears to support the opinion. The Gulf stream 



109 



by its approach here to the land, the isothermal Hue falling 
a few miles south of Crisfield, situated in the southernmost 
part of the county, renders the climate mild in winter, 
softens the breezes of summer, and occasions the best cli- 
matic condition for the early vigorous growth of fruits and 
vegetables. 

The several rivers and creeks and the Tangier Sound, 
where the finest oysters grow, afford ample water transpor- 
tation to Baltimore by steamers and sailing vessels, having 
the Eastern Shore Steamboat Company from Crisfield, the 
Maryland Steamboat Company from Salisbury, and the 
Manokin River Steamboat Company from Princess Anne. 
The county has unsurpassed transportation facilities by the 
New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad to northern 
and western markets. 

It may be safely said that nowhere in the rural districts of 
Maryland is labor better rewarded than throughout Somer- 
set county. In winter the various branches of the oyster 
trade give employment to hundreds who would otherwise 
be without work, and in summer the crabbing interest has 
grown to be an industry that will almost rival the oyster 
trade in profit, while during the strawberry feeason a suffi- 
cient number of laborers cannot be secured from the county's 
borders to reap the crop, and hundreds are brought from 
Virginia and adjoining counties, and receive good wages. 
An excellent feature of this kind of labor also is that it is 
distributed among all classes, and every man, woman and 
child get their respective share of the profits. From present 
indications it would seem that Somerset county is destined 
to have a large acreage of vegetable and fruit-producing 
gardens, and when this is accomplished, and the vast 
resources which nature has furnished in the oyster bottom 
which lines the county's shores have been properly and 
judiciously cultivated, there is no reason why Somerset 
should not be one of the most progressive counties in the 
State. The principal towns are Princess Anne, the county 



110 



seat, and Ci'isfield, which in recent years lias become an im- 
portant depot of the oyster trade. According to the census 
of 1890, Crisfield has a census of 1,565, an increase of 58.72 
per cent., since the census of 1880. According to the census 
of. 1890 the population of the county was 24,155 divided as 
follows : white, 14,502 ; colored, 9,653. 

■WORCESTER COUNTY. 

Worcester county, in the extreme southeastern portion of 
the Eastern Shore, is the only county in Maryland that borders 
on the Atlantic, and contains Maryland's only seaside. Its 
area is 475 square miles. The soil is greatly diversified, vary- 
ing from the unproductive to that which is very fertile. 
Generally, however, if not naturally fertile, it is of a character 
easily made susceptible of improvement and a high degree of 
productiveness. Some sections, notably those near the borders 
of the Pocomoke river, which runs through the length of the 
county, and also the newly cleared swamp lands, often yield 
from 50 to 100 bushels of corn per acre. The most valuable 
lands, perhaps are those with a surface of light loam and red 
clay subsoil, which occupy the largest area. This kind of soil 
is entirely destitute of rocks, easily cultivated, yielding, with 
the application of barnyard manure, cempoet, or some com- 
mercial fertilizer, remunerative crops of cereals, and of every 
variety of produce found in this latitude. Many years ago 
tobacco was raised, but, except to a limited extent, this has 
long since been abandoned for the staple gi-ains — corn, wheat, 
oats and rye. The land is eminently adapted for the culti- 
vation of vegetables, including sweet and irish potatoes, peas, 
beans, melons, <fec., large quantities of which are annually 
raised and shipped to the cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia and 
New York. Perhaps no section east of the Mississippi river 
is more favorable to the successful culture of the larger and 
smaller fruits, such as apples, peaches, pears, cherries, straw- 



Ill 



berries, raspberries, &c. According to the census of 1890, the 
population of the county was 19,747, divided as follows: whites, 
12,893; colored, 6,854. 

The capabilities of Worcester county lands in the directions 
indicated, as to extent of acreage and all the favorable inci- 
dents of adaptation, are not half utilized. Clover, timothy, 
orchard grass, alfalfa and all the grasses are successfully grown 
and used for hay or pasturage. On the seaside farms, which 
border the county on one side for a distance of 40 miles, are 
hundreds of acres of salt marsh, in a considerable degree 
covered with a natural grass, luxuriant and valuable, furnish- 
ing pasture range for large herds of stock and rich hay for 
animals in winter quarters. The river, bays and creeks abound 
with tish, shad, herring, perch, rock, trout, drum, sheepshead, 
&c. The oyster industry is extensive and important, giving 
employment to thousands and supplying a profitable source 
of investment.' The oysters of Worcester county waters are 
superior to the Chesapeake bivalve, and have a reputation of 
their own in the great cities where they are prized as a de- 
licious luxury by the epicure. The commercial facilities of 
the county are very good. Assateague bay, with inlet at 
Chincoteague, Ya., is navigated by schooners of fair size, 
engaged in trade with Philadelphia, New York, Boston and 
other seaports. The Pocomoke river, as already stated, tra 
verses the county, and though narrow and crooked, it has a 
good, deep channel, affordmg good commercial facilities from 
Snow Hill," the county town and head of navigation, and from 
all points along its course to the Chesapeake. The steamer 
Tangier plies regularly between Snow Hill and places on the 
river, stopping at Onancock, Ya., and Crisfield, Md., and the 
city of Baltimore, making tvvo trips weekly. The Tangier is 
a commodious boat, carrying large amounts of produce, con- 
sisting mainly of potatoes and fruit, and returning with freight 
of every description. • 



112 



Besides Snow Hill, which has a population of 1,483, an 
increase of 16.22 per cent, since the census of 1880, the prin- 
cipal towns are Berlin, in the northern part of the county, 
and Pocomoke cit}^ on Poconioke river, in the southern part. 
These towns and several smaller villages are directly on rail- 
roads, affording daily communication with Baltimore, Phila- 
delphia and New York. 

Besides canning establishments and steam mills for sawing, 
dressing and manufacturing lumber, these towns have other 
industries. There is quite a large factory for weaving cotton- 
yarn at Snow Hill, and another for making whips of different 
sorts. Pocomoke City, which has a population of 1,866, an 
increase of 30.95 per cent, since the census of 1880, is largely 
engaged in manufacturing doors, windows, mantels, brackets, 
&c. This town has many advantages, and is a neat, enterpris 
ing and thrifty place, has the electric light, and is under excel- 
lent corporate management. It is only a few hours' travel 
from Pocomoke City to Norfolk and Fortress Monroe, Ya., 
with trains constantly going to those points and the great 
cities 

Near Berlin, and immediately on the Atlantic Ocean, is the 
seaside resort Ocean Cit}-, famous for its beauty and salubrity, 
and popular with citizens of Baltimore, Philadelphia and 
Delaware. 

Land in Worcester County generally is cheap, prices vary- 
ing according to locality and quality, from $5 to $50. 

Agricultural implements of improved kinds are coming 
Tnore and more into general use. Every season there is an 
increased demand for reapers, mowers, drills, planters, har- 
rows, &c. 

Much more interest is manifested in improved stock than 
formerly. This remark includes all varieties of stock — horses, 
cattle, sheep and hogs. In some isolated places in remote 



113 



points of the county, where formerly stock of all kinds was 
of the most inferior grade, may now be found on farms be- 
longing to the poorest farmers, specimens of cattle that would 
not be a discredit to a herd in the best parts of New York or 

Pennsylvania. 



SOUTHERX mARYLANO. 

A COUNTRY WITH A BRIGHT FUTURE— OPPORTUNITIES FOR 
ENERGETIC IMMIGRANTS. 

All sections of Maryland offer opportunities and invite not 
only our own people to come forward and develop them, but 
present inducements for a very large immigration. No section 
of the State offers a better field for enterprise and industry 
than the very oldest settled part known as Southern Maryland, 
comprising the counties of Anne Arundel, Calvert, Prince 
George's, Charles and St. Mary's. There was a time wlien 
Southern Maryland was the garden spot of the State. "Within 
its area once lived many of the wealtliiest and most distinguished 
families of the State. Rich plantations covered the country 
from Elkridge Landing to the Potomac, and there was a flour- 
ishing community of planters from the Patapsco to the Chesa- 
peake Bay and the Potomac. Cultivated by slaves, tlie land 
was productive, and the tobacco fields of Southern Maryland 
were in those days the pride and wonder of the country. 

But the war between the States desolated Southern Mary- 
land. In 1865, those who had been rich were poor. The 
emancipation of slaves in 18G2, destroyed the working force 
of the whole region, agricultural blight fell upon the land. 
The old families sold out their plantations or parted with a 
portion of their possessions to strangers. A new population 
took the place of the old, and a period of retrogression set in. 
For forty years Southern Maryland has been oversjiread with 
8 



114 



industrial night. There are, liowever, signs of progress in this 
once much favored locality. Soil, climate, situation and topo- 
graphy are all that could be desired for splendid country 
homes and thriving farms. The difficulties attendant upon 
paucity of labor are being gradually overcome. Patient in- 
dustry has put the older residents on their feet again, and 
newcomers have seized opportunities, and the battle of de- 
velopment has begun in good earnest. Towns along the rail- 
roads and elsewhere are springing up. "Washingtonians and 
Baltimoreans are building country-seats here and there. 
Manufactories are getting a foothold, M'hile the reported sale 
of 1,700 acres of land in Prince George's to the Danes has, 
perhaps, solved the agricultural question. 

Among the towns, Annapolis, Prince Frederick, Laurel, 
Beltsville, Bladensburg, Ilyattsville, Leonardtown, Lower 
Marlboro, Port Tobacco, Bryantown, Bowie, Patnxent, L^pper 
Marlboro and Piscataway are, doubtless, taking the lead. 
Some of these are assuming the character of suburban viMages, 
while others are locating jnanufactures. Canning establish- 
ments are springing up here and there, factories of various 
kinds are building in a few places, and the tide is evidently 
setting in toward prosperity. 

In the future development of the State, Southern Maryland 
is bound to play an important part. It is impossible that a 
region of so great fertility should be left to go backward. 

Just after the war the Eastern Shore was in about the same 
condition as that from which Southern Maryland is suffering 
now. It had only limited railroad facilities ; its lands were, 
except in certain localities, much impoverished, and the people 
were dispirited, non-progressive, and disposed to let matters 
shift along at hap-hazard. There were a few men of energy 
in every county, however, who remembered a prediction of 
thirty years before, that the Eastern Shore was destined^to 



115 



become one of the garden spots of the country, and who lent 
their aid to every project for making the natural attractions of 
their section known to the outside world. The attention of 
capitalists, small farmers at the Korth, and laboring men gen- 
erally, was by degrees attracted to this region, and in course 
of time an inflow of money and settlers set in, introducino- 
new enterprises and new business habits and methods of agri- 
culture. This inflow has gone on steadily increasing until the 
Eastern Shore may be said to have actually become a " garden 
spot," producing immense quantities of fruits and vegetables 
which find ready sale in the J^orthern markets as well as in 
Baltimore and Washington. 

Southern Maryland is now pretty much in the same position 
as the Eastern Shore was thirty years ago. It has equal ad- 
vantages of soil and climate, and is probably quite as well 
adapted to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. With a 
well sustained, energetic effort on the part of its more enter- 
prising people, aided by outside capital and the adoption of 
the latest methods of farm and garden cultivation, Soutliern 
Maryland could be converted into an important region of sup- 
ply for Baltimore and Washington. 

The rivers which intersect the Southern Maryland counties 
are mostly navigable many miles from their mouths, thus 
forming good and important w^ater courses. The Patuxent 
river, which divides Calvert county from St. Mary's, Cliarles 
and Prince George's counties is a tidal stream navigable by 
steamers for a distance of soiiie forty miles from its mouth. 
The country bordering the rivers and bays is flat, and as one 
goes further inland it becomes rolling, and in some places it is 
elevated from two to three hundred feet above the tide. Fol- 
lowing almost every valley in the counties are brooks, fed by 
clear, cold springs, which flow continuously and evenly, which 
supply man and beast with pure, wiiolesome water. The river 
valleys, and those of the numerous small streams, are narrow 



116 



level, and of extraordinary fertility. The surface soil of the 
uplands are generally a light, friable loam, overlying a strong 
clay, with deep substratum of shell and green sand marl — nat- 
ural deposits of very great economic value. 

Southern Maryland, owing to the tempering winds from oft: 
the wealth of waters washing its shores, is blessed with a 
climate remarkable for its equability, the mean of summer and 
winter temperature of the air being fifty-six to fifty-eight 
degrees ; that of winter, from the close proximity of the M-arm 
current of the Gulf stream, ranges from a mean of thirty-six 
to thirty-eight degrees, or but little, if any, less mild than that 
of eastern North Carolina, two hundred miles further south. 

Soil and Climate. 

The land is very productive and easy of tillage, some that 
has been in cultivation two centuries is yet as productive and 
at as little cost for labor, as the rich garden land about the 
cities. It waits only tlie touch of enterprise, the introduction 
of new and modern methods, the utilization of its natural 
advantages, to reach that high appreciation and value in the 
present which it enjoyed so fully in the past. Here the stock 
raise: will lind land and climate periectly litted for the 
economical production, nurture and growth of cattle, and close 
proximity on either hand to the. best markets for his surplus 
small stock, hay and grain. 

When once the fact shall be .clearly realized, that, by reason 
of peculiarily favorable position and mild climate. Southern 
Maryland lands, when devoted to the production of a varied 
agriculture, such as, for example, market farming in fruits, 
early vegetables and the like, shall be worth more per acre, 
and will produce better cash returns than the land of any less 
advantageously situated region, even where the natural fertility 
of soil may be greater, for as the ability to supply the near-by 



117 

city markets is increased, the moiiej value of each acre, as well 
as of its products are also increased. 

PROXIMITY TO MARKETS. 

This southern portion of Maryland has in common with 
some parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey the advantages of 
the near neighborhood of great markets. The proximity of 
such important markets as those of Washington and Baltimore, 
are found to be of little value to the farmer who ships his 
wheat, corn or tobacco to the seaboard for foreign export ; but 
to the truck or market farmer, who raises early vegetables, 
fruits, flowers, poultry, etc., the value of a near-by market is 
well-nigh incalculable. But the lands of this region possess 
yet other and more important advantages than those of near- 
ness to market. During the early months of the year, while 
the market farmer of the neighboring State is watching the 
weather and endeavoring to protect his early plants against late 
frosts, he of the milder climate of Southern Maryland is ship- 
ping his early crop to market. If only the known better 
methods of culture be applied, and diligence and care used, all 
the desirable market crops of the temperate zone, together with 
many of a sub-tropical character, may be produced in the 
greatest perfection, and in season to control the market for 
weeks before those produced a few miles further inland have 
sufficiently matured. 

THE FRUITS OF SOUTHERN MARYLAND. 

One of the pleasing experiences of the visitor to Southern 
Maryland is of wonder at the excellence, variety, large size 
and fine flavor of the cultivated and native fruits. The mild- 
ness of the climate permits trees and plants to grow with great 
rapidity, to bear early, and to admit of the sub-tropical and 
the temperate being cultivated side by side in the orchard. 
Fruit growers have, therefore, the best opportunities here to 



118 



secure the outside markets, as fruits ripen so much earlier, 
often three to four weeks, than in the vicinity of I^^ew York 
and other northern cities to which shipments are made. 

The large profits attendant upon systematic cultivation, 
preservation, and marketing of the best fruits, is well under- 
stood by those engaged in the business. To those farmers not 
so experienced this fact may be of interest : that the orchard 
or vineyard rightly managed yields a far better return for the 
capital and labor expended than even the best of the ordinary 
farm crops. 

In other States the orchards of former years are rapidly 
j)assing away, some of the natural elements required by the 
fruits apparently having been exhausted. The planting of 
orchards in Southern Maryland is now for th6 first time, being 
entered upon by experienced fruit growers, the object being 
to secure the market from the frequent interruptions caused 
by failure of the fruit crop. 

Among the more valuable fruits, notably, apples and pears, 
many of the best and most favorably known types and 
varieties had their origin on the shores of the Potomac. The 
apricot, nectarine, and the fig ; as also the almond and the 
English walnut, have been found in the gardens of many of 
the planters throughout this section, since the earliest settle- 
ment of the State. 

To the grape culturist, and the wine-maker, no more need be 
said than that this is the natural home of the American grape. 
All the more delicate varieties grow here to perfection, in- 
cluding the champagne and others which have not been found 
to thrive elsewhere, even in Southern California. 

KATIVE WOODS. 

The forests and timbered lands of Southern Maryland are 
yet, after extensive cutting for ship-building, railroad and com- 
mercial purposes, of great extent and value. The whole pe- 



119 



niasula was originally heavily timbered with white oak, red 
oak, chestnut, hickory, walnut, ash, and other hard woods, and 
owing to the large areas usual to holdings, very much of the 
original forest timber still remains; in addition to Avhich there 
is scarcely to be found a farm, however long under cultivation, 
without some considerable reserved timber. Pine lands of 
nearly equal extent, and furnishing valuable timber, occur 
throughout all of Southern Maryland. On the whole, consid- 
ering situation, abundance of supply and availability for man- 
ufacture and shipment, timber must, for many years to come, 
hold a hio'h rank amono; the valuable resources of this region. 

The white wood of Southern Maryland is exclusively used 
in the form of pulp by manufacturers of paper. The heavy 
freight on bulk shipments in the rough state of green wood 
might naturally be supposed to be a bar to long distance car- 
riage in that state ; but the heavy duty on imported Canadian 
wood-pulp and the increasing scarcity of suitable material at 
home has caused the pulp manufacturers, especially those of 
]^ew England, to seek the raw material in Southern Mary- 
land, notwithstanding the great length of haul, much of which 
is by railroad, and consequently immensely expensive. 

Large quantities of the iinest pulp wood is now being taken 
out for shipment north ; but very much of the wooded areas 
are yet untouched ; thus the field is wide and valuable for the 
paper-pulp manufacturer who shall take advantage of the op- 
portunity offered in the white woods of Southern Maryland, to 
start a manufactory of paper pulp in that section of this State. 

THE FISHING INDUSTRY. 

The bays and estuaries, and the greater and lesser rivers and 
inlets of Southern Maryland, furnish a practically inexhausti- 
ble supply of the more important food Ushes, of which the 
most numerous and widely distributed, as also, the most ralua- 



120 



blc commercially, are the members of the herring and shacJ 
families. The Potomac herring is immensely numerous in all 
the waters of Southern Maryland — while the shad iisheries 
of the Potomac river and its estuaries furnish that best of table 
fish to all the markets of the eastern cities. 

Many other varieties of choice and commercially vahiable 
food fishes abound in these waters. Notable as well for their 
extreme delicacy as for their abundance, is the superb blue 
fish of the coast, the striped bass and sea trout ; while black 
bass, white and yellow perch, pike, and other well-known fresh 
and brackish water fish^ are here to swell the list of epicurean 
delicacies freely furnished to man. 

The fish industry of Southern Maryland gives employment 
to a large number of men and boats. In the spring and fall 
the fish are caught, principally by means of trap nets, and 
during the summer by means of seines. The fishermen are 
scattered along the shores of the Potomac river and Chesa- 
peake bay and their estuaries, and fish can be had on these 
shores as low as $2.50 per thousand for herring, $10 per thous- 
and for shad, 10c. per bushel for alewives or menhaden, 3c. 
per pound for catfish, 5c. per pound for rockfish or striped 
bass, 5c. per pound for blue fish, 10c. per pound for mackeral, 
5c. per pound for trout or weakfish, and the many other kinds- 
of fish in proportion. 

In the spring a large number of the farmers send their 
wagons to the nearest fisherman and buy from 500 to 5,000 
fish, just caught, and salt them down and otherwise preserve 
them for their use during the year. 

THE OYSTER TRADE. 

Extensive natural beds of the finest known oysters, occur 
along the shores and inlets of the Potomac and Chesapeake, 
the gathering and shipment of which employs a large amount 



121 



of capital, numerous fleets of vessels, and give employment to 
a vast number of men. Ojster packing and canning has 
hitherto been largely monopolized by the environing cities of 
Baltimore, Norfolk and Washington, from which points ship- 
ments are made to all parts of the United States. 

The development of the oyster by selection and cultiva- 
tion, or oyster farming, has, where entered upon and conducted 
as a business, been found to be enormously profitable, owing 
to the extraordinary rapidity of increase in size and value of 
the products of cultivated beds over those of natural deposit 
so much so that lands bordering on suitable oyster w^aters are 
coming into very active demand. 

Many resident proprietors are now engaging in systematic 
oyster planting, and in the establishment of packing and can- 
ning factories. The oyster business thus locally established 
and conducted, will, as a natural result of the saving in freights 
upon bulk shipments, and the employment of the cheaper 
labor of the country, soon become one of the largest and most 
profitable of the food supplying industries of the land. 

The oysters of Southern Maryland find a ready market in 
Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, and sell for from 40 
cents to $1.00 per bushel. Any private individual can, with- 
out any expense to himself, gather in a short time enongh 
good large oysters for a large family. 

STOCK EAISING. 

There are few, if any more interesting or profitablcj lines 
within the many open to the enterprising farmer coming to 
Southern Maryland, than those of stock raising 'and dairy 
farming. The long and seldom dry summers, together with 
the absence of excessive cold during the short winters, permits 
the growth of a great variety of nntricious grasses nearly all 
through the year. The natural grasses, notably the native blue 



122 



grass and its varieties, spring from the soil without artificial 
effort, while with cultivation they give premise of abundant 
returns to the stock and dairy farmer. The cultivated grasses, 
wiienever tried for winter use, baling or shipment, give sur- 
prising returns, filling the barns, or furnishing a lucrative busi- 
ness to the packer and shipper of baled hay. 

Cattle and sheep graze out, almost wholly without care or 
shelter in all seasons. Kow when we remember that the cost 
of housing and winter feeding of stock in the northern and 
most of the Middle States is very considerable — not less than 
$6.00 to $10.00 per head for feed alone, each winter — not to 
count the extra care and labor involved, we see that there is a 
net gain of such amount on each head, to the producer here, 
over his neighbor in an adjoining State, or sufficient to make 
systematic stock farming and dairying much more easy to 
engage in and more profitable in results, than even upon the 
free-grazing lands of the west. 

Sheep, as is well known, to produce the finest staple of wool 
require a moderate climate, temperate in summer that it may 
be of fine texture Avitliout being scant, and mild enough in 
winter to prevent any tendency to coarseness. Southern ]\[ary- 
land offers both these advantages besides which there is no loss 
in either young or old from the severity of the winter cold as 
on the ranges in other States. 

PEACH CULTURE. 

The peninsula of 'Southern Maryland, the peach producing 
center of the country for coming times, covers an area of some 
two thousand square miles — sufficient if put into orchards to 
supply the markets of the world. It is embraced between two 
extensive bodies of salt water, and is, consequently, within and 
subject to the climate influences most favorable to the rapid 
and perfect growth of the peach. 



123 



The central find southern portions of the peninsula, the 
counties of Charles, St. Mary's, Calvert and Anne Arundel, 
furnish lands of the highest promise ; tlie tempering influences 
of the Chesapeake and Potomac waters moderating the 
extremes of both heat and cold to that degree which is found 
requisite to the highest perfection of fruit development, every 
breeze being laden with saline particles that not only carry 
destruction to many species of fruit infesting insects, but f rr- 
nish to the trees that fx'uitful, vivifying quality which enables 
them to bear abundantly and to endure to a great age. 

PKICE OF LAND AND IMPROVEMENTS. 

Some of the tracts of land offered and more especially 
adapted to peach culture, are of large extent, the majority, 
however, range from two hundred to three hundred acres each, 
very many of these are in a good state of cultivation, ready for 
orchard planting, and in a highly improved condition. Smaller 
parcels of flne orchard land occur frequently, sometimes im- 
proved by good farm buildings, and again with only common- 
place tenant houses, or no improvements at all beyond that of 
inclosure. All the more considerable tracts, as also many of 
the smaller farms, have good and expensive farm buildings, the 
dwellings usually well situated, large, roomy houses, built in 
that style so popular with the Southern planter a generation 
ago, low pitched roofs and wide, shady verandas, surrounded 
by grassy lawns through which gravelled walks lead to the 
groups of barns and farm buildings scattered about. Not 
much of precision or order in their arrangement perhaps, but 
convenient, useful, and in keeping with the outdoor habits of 
the people. According to condition of soil, and buildings 
thereon and to location, the price for land varies from $5 to 
$25 per acre, in large or small tracts. Some land conamands a 
still higher figure. For putting up new buildings or repairing 
old ones, all kinds of material can be quickly had from Balti- 



124 



more or Wasliintrton, Terms upon Avliicli land is rented, is 
about as follows: The owner furnishes the land, dwelling, 
team and all the necessary implements for working the crops, 
and receives two-thirds of the crop, and the tenant gets one- 
third. In cases where the tenant furnishes teams and im- 
plements, better arrangements are made. The tenants are 
generally furnished with employment at remunerative wages, 
by the landlord or neighboring farmers, when not engaged in 
working their crops. 

DAIKY FARMING. 
/ . . . 

Dairy farming is early destined to become one of the lead- 
ing industries. The advantages are such as to offer peculiar 
inducements for the enterprising dairy farmer. It has been 
said by an eminent agricultural writer that "whoever has blue 
grass has the basis of all agricultural prosperity ; and that 
man, if he have not the finest horses, cattle and sheep, has no 
one to blame but himself. Others, in other circumstances, 
may do as well, he can hardly avoid doing well if he will try." 
Among the rich and succulent grasses indigenous to the soil of 
Southern Maryland is this justly esteemed blue grass, so neces- 
sary to the production of rich, sweet butter and cheese and 
juicy, tender beef. 

The dairy business has but just been entered upon, some 
large and prosperous herds are now furnishing milk, cream 
and butter to the cities of Washington and Baltimore. But 
the people of Southern Maryland have almost everything to 
learn of the proper manner of making butter and cheese, and 
preparing them for market, meanwhile the markets are the 
best which the Eastern States afford. There is plenty of room 
for the dairyman, and plenty for the products of his farm, be 
the price ever so high, the demand will always equal the sup. 

ply- 



125 



TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 

The facilities for travel, and for the transportation of 
freights are amply sufficient for present purposes. "Water and 
railroad communication can be had with all important trade 
centers, north and south. The numerous transportation lines 
of the Potomac and Chesapeake furnish dailj connection with 
the principal seaboard States. The railroad system of South- 
ern Maryland now operated comprises the Baltimore and Po- 
tomac, a part of the Pennsylvania trunk line system, the Balti- 
more and Ohio, the Annapolis and Elk Ridge, and the Southern 
Maryland over part of its route. The railroads in pi ogress, or 
in process of development, are the Baltimore and Drum Point, 
the Southern Maryland to connect "Washington and Point 
Lookout, the "Washington and Cheasapeake, and the "Washing- 
ton and Marlboro (electric system). The older lines creat- 
ing or aiding in the growth of new enterprises, the new lines 
in progress, or in prospective, having the effect of encouraging 
the opening up of new industries, and the investment of capi- 
tal in localities heretofore undeveloped. 

THE DRUM POINT RAILROAD. 

The completion of the railroad to Drum Point, at the mouth 
of the Patuxent river, a distance of seventy miles from Balti- 
more, would ensure quick facilities of transit for a section of 
the country wdiich is now solely dependent on water transpor- 
tation. The road would run through a practically new and 
undeveloped region capable of producing a great variety of 
crops and watered by numerous water-courses. The lands are 
cheap and easy of cultivation, and oysters, fish and crabs are 
abundant. Clays lor brick, drain pipe and terra cotta products 
are found along the shores of the Patuxent in such localities as 
to make them easy of manufacture and shipment. Timber 
for vessels, buildings and general manufacture, is plentiful. If 
the road were constructed it would afford the people of Balti. 



126 



more quick and easy access to various excursion points, including 
Fair Haven, Drum Point, Point Patience, etc. Drum Point 
harbor is conceded to be second to none on our coast, and 
would be an admirable point for the development of the oyster 
industry, as hundreds of oyster vessels are now obliged to take 
refuge there during stormy weatlier, and would find a safe and 
convenient location for discharging their cargoes. 

From Drum Point the road and its connections could be 
continued across the Patuxent through St. Mary's county, 
across the Potomac into Virginia, and thence to Richmond 
and Norfolk, giving Baltimore a direct route to the South, 
which her business men have so long needed. If the oyster 
industry were once established at Drum Point, various other 
industries would spring up in its wake. 

Mi:S'ERALS AND ORES. 

Along the banks of the upper Patuxent, near Lower and 
Upper Marlboro, there are several valuable banks or 
deposits of marl which is mined for the manufacture of com- 
mercial fertilizers. Xear Lyon's creek there is a valuable 
deposit of fine chalky mineral which is extensively mined. At 
first the silica was shipped in small quantities for experimental 
purposes, in order to find its commercial value. It has now 
been ascertained that it is not only valuable as a pohshing 
powder, but can be utilized for packing around steam chests 
and boilers. It is also used now extensively for packing around 
vaults and safes used for fireproof purposes. The silica found 
on the Patuxent is said to be the purest that has ever been 
found in tliis country, and in foreign countries, a mine in Ger- 
many is said to be the only rival in purity. Several thousand 
dollars have been spent here for mining facilities. At first it 
was shipped wet, but the heavy freight charges have induced 
the drying of the mineral for shipment. For this purpose a 
number of drying-houses have been erected and heaters used. 



127 



When dug from the mine it looks very much like what is 
familiarly known as Fuller's earth ; but upon examination it is 
found to be a very much finer substance and is easily dis- 
tinguished by the most causual observation. "When mined it 
is thi'own down long shntes to the wash-house, where it is 
washed clear of any sand that has filtered into it from the over- 
lay of soil, and is carried then to the hot-air rooms, and placed 
on long shelves to be dried. It is then found to be very light 
and closely resembling chalk. In this condition it is now being 
shipped in large quantities. 

This is but one of the many remunerative industrial enter- 
prises of this wonderful section of the State. There are many 
more waiting for the intelligent immigrant and capitalist. 
Southern Maryland is rich in natural resources and is on the 
eave of such manufacturing and commercial developement as 
shall make it the center of industrial activity among the sea- 
board States. In its abundance of resources there is wealth 
for a million people, its fisheries, its oyster industry, its fruit 
culture, its timber, its commerce and manufacturies are each 
separately sufficient to give employment and wealth to a dense 
population. 

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY. 

Anne Arundel is the most northern of the counties compris- 
ing the section known as Southern Maryland. It embraces an 
area of -iOO square miles, and has for its boundaries the Patapsco 
river on the north, separating it from Baltimore city and county, 
Chesapeake bay on the east, Calvert county on the south, and 
Prince George's and Howard counties on the west. Accord- 
ing to the census of 1890, the population was 34,094, an in- 
crease of 5,568 or 19,52 per cent, since the census of 1880. 
There are 19,441 white persons in the county and 14.648 
colored. 

A portion of Anne Arundel county is immediately opposite 
the city of Baltimore, and is the garden spot of the metrop- 



128 



olis of the State, The Annapolis Short Line Railroad runs 
through this fertile land, and the new Curtis Bay Electric 
road will make it easy of access to the city. Access is also af- 
forded by the "Long Bridge" which stretches across the Pa- 
tapsco from Baltimore to Brooklyn. The proximity of this 
section of Anne Arundel county to the city, and the light, 
fertile character of the soil, adapt it especially to the raising 
of garden produce for the city markets, which is caaried on 
fiuccessfullj' to a very large extent. 

Some of the best farms in the State are to be found in this 
locality. One gentleman in this locality has 640 acres which 
is adapted to all crops. Li the season of 1891, he had one 
hundred acres in peas, sixty acres in strawberries, sixty acres 
in wheat, forty acres in grass, and one hundred acres in corn. 
IJesicles, thirty acres are devoted to peaches and forty acres to 
pasture. 4,000 trees are in the peach orchard, but as last year 
was the first year of bearing, only about 2,500 bushels were 
gathered. 

In the height of the season one hundred and twenty-five 
hands are employed as pickers, and in 1891, they gathered 
6,000 bushels of peas, 107,000 cpiarts of strawberries and 
23,000 quarts of cherries. Pickers are paid in accordance with 
amount of work done, and receive fifteen cents per bushel on 
peas, and one and a-half cents per quart on strawberries and 
cherries. 1,500 bushels of wheat was harvested and 1,100 
barrels of corn, equal to 10,000 bushels on the ear, gathered, 
and ninety tons of hay raised for consumption on the farm. 
The wheat was sold on July lOth, at §1.05 per bushel, and 
the corn brought $2.40 per barrel. Hay was worth $12.00 per 
ton on the farm. 

Our farmer friends in the North and AVest who wish to 
benefit themselves and are seeking new locations, are invited 
to do a little iignring on the income of a farm of this character. 
Maryland has never known a failure in crops, and there are 



129 



to-day as fine opportunities to secure good locations as there 
has ever been in the history of the State. 

No portion of the State can raise watermelons, canteloupes, 
cabbage, peas, string beans and tomatoes, superior to thoSe 
grown in that section of Anne Arundel county between the 
Severn and Patapsco rivers. The peach orchards in this sec- 
tion are also extensive and productive. Strawberries and other 
small fruits grow abundantly and ripen easy. In the summer 
season the southern portion of this district is one vast and 
beautiful garden of fruits, berries and vegetables, ornamented 
with fine and handsome residences. Land in this neighbor, 
hood is worth from $50 to $500 an acre, and there is very 
little for sale. In tliis neighborhood are also numerous villages 
and settlements which are rapidly increasing in population and 
in importance as manufacturing centers. Brooklyn, Fairfield 
and South Baltimore or Curtis Bay, show wonderful progress 
in the past ten years. 

The fourth district of the county begins near Millersville, 
and runs up to Annapolis Junction on the Washington branch 
of the Baltimore and Ohio Kailroad. This road skirts the 
northern boundary, and the Baltimere and Potomac Railroad 
runs througli the southern section of this, district. The 
Annapolis, Washington and Baltimore Railroad runs nearly 
through the centre and makes communication with Baltimore 
and Washington easy. 

The land in the center of the fourth district is light and 
sandy; the other parts kind and fertile. This district is a 
flourishing section, including in its boundaries Jessup's, which 
is rapidly improving'. Besides the common schools, it has an 
academy at Millersville and one at Jessup's. The churches 
are Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist. The springs of this 
district are noted for their purity and volume. The Maryland 
House of Correction is at Jessup's, in this district. Land at 
Jessup's is worth from fifty to two hundred dollars per acre. 
9 



130 



Other tracts can be bought in the district from ten to seventy- 
five dollars per acre. 

There are no railroad facilities in the section south of 
Annapolis. All the produce is shipped bj boat, and in some 
cases has to be hauled a distance of ten miles or more to the 
landing. This will be remedied when the Drum Point Rail- 
road, now under construction, is finished. There are some 
good grass farms in the lower section, and in the whole county 
the soil is favorable to fruit-growing. There are many profit- 
able peach orchards in the southern part of the county, and 
their number and acreage is rapidly increasing. Farmers along 
the line of the proposed Drum Point Road say if railroad 
transportation is afforded them, it will not be long before lower 
Anne Arundel will also become a great trucking country. 
Tobacco of very fine quality is raised in all parts of the county, 
and corn grows luxuriantly. In the northern portion of the 
county, iron mines are worked successfully, and there are seve- 
ral iron furnaces profitably engaged in mamifacturing pig iron. 

The improvement in farming machinery is going on slowly 
but surely. Instead of the old cradle, the self-binder is now 
used. Live stock has also improved in quality and quantity. 
An excellent opportunity is afforded for industrious immi- 
grants to locate in Anne Arundel, farm hands, mostl}' colored, 
being very scarce. 

There are good openings for flour mills and canning factor- 
ies in lower Anne Arundel, as well as in Annapolis ; and at 
Horn Point, an adjunct to the city, which now boasts of a 
glass factory that gives employment to a number of people. 
There are about eight canning establishments in the county. 
Near Annapolis, on the Chesapeake bay, is the celebrated ex- 
cursion summer resort, "Bay Ridge." It is estimated 
50,000 people visit this delightful spot during the summer sea- 
pon. 



131 



ANNAPOLIS— THE CAPITAL OP THE STATE. 

Annapolis is the largest city in the county and the capital of 
the State. In 1691: the provincial government was removed 
from St. Mary's city, in St. Mary's county, and in 1772 the 
present State House was begun, but it was not finished until 
1793, This ancient building has been tlie scene of many im- 
portant historical eveuts. In it the Continental Congress sat 
during the Revolution, and in the old Senate chamber, at the 
close of the war. General Washington surrendered to the peo- 
ple his commission as commander-in-chief of the American 
army. The convention which originated the Federal Consti- 
tution first assembled in this old State House. The old city 
was the seat of the wealth and culture of the State dnring the 
early days of the Republic. Some of the stately mansions of 
the Revolutionary period remain in the city as models of 
liberality, ease and convenience. Among better examples of 
colonial houses still remaining may be mentioned the resi- 
dences of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, Samuel Chase, 
Chancellor Johnson, Anthony Stewart, Jonas Green, Brice, 
Rideout, Ilarwood, and many others. 

According to the census of 1890, Annapolis contains a pop- 
ulation of 7,601: persons, an increase of 11:.48 per cent, over 
the census of 1880. 

The corporate limits of Annapolis have nearly been rounded 
out into building lots, on which there are not only comforta- 
ble, but many stately residences. Yet, alongthe banks of the 
Severn and Chesapeake, contiguous to Annapolis, are many 
beautiful sites which can be bought at most reasonable prices, 
from $100 an acre and upwards. Building lots in the city, in 
eligible locations, bring from $30 to $40 a front foot in fee. 
Annapolis has a delightful society. The Naval Academy, St. 
John's College and the Redemptorist Theological School are 
located in Annapolis. The city has four Methodist churches, 
two for whites and two for colored ; three Episcopal churches, 



132 



one for colored people ; one Catholic, one Lutheran, one Pres- 
byterian, and one Baptist, for colored people. It has the ordi- 
nary schools of the public school system. Its sources of reve- 
nue are the oyster, iish and crab trade ; the employment of its 
people in the Naval Academy ; trade with the residents of the 
Naval Academy ; merchandising with the surrounding coun- 
try, and its receipts from the gathering of state officials and 
politicians. Eight daily railroad trains — four over the Annap- 
olis, AVashington and Baltimore, and four over the Short 
Line — put Annapolis in almost hourl}^ communication with 
Baltimore. The steamer Emma Giles also runs there from 
Baltimore three times a w^eek, continuing on to South, Rhode 
and West rivers. 

THE BEAUTIES OF SEVERN KIVER. 

The Severn river enters the bay at Annapolis, and •may be 
regarded as an arm of the Chesapeake rather than a river. 
Opposite the Naval Academy it is nearly a mile wide, and 
from this point for six miles it maintains an average width of 
half a mile, when it expands into a bay or lake of three miles 
diameter. This is Round Bay or "Eagle Nest Bay." An 
island — Saint Helena by name — lies in the centre of the 
southern portion, or "Little Round Bay." The Severn con- 
tinues its course for some miles, gradually diminishing in 
width and depth until it loses its characteristic size in the 
romantic surroundings of Indian Landing. 

From Greenberry Point Light to the head of Round Bay is 
nine miles, and the depth of water in the channel varies from 
19 to 47 feet. The shores sloping from the uplands to the 
river are varied by decided eminences attaining the highest 
155 feet elevation. Forty such distinct little mountains can 
be counted on an accurate survey. 

With such elements of beauty and utility, the hillsides 
clothed witli checkered fields and forests, the broad river navi- 



133 



gable for the largest craft, it is astonishing that this region 
remains almost an unknown land to the people generally. As 
river scenery it has been compared to tlie Hudson, and cer- 
tainly, excepting always the grand gorge of the "Highlands," 
the comparison can be maintained. But it may be better de- 
scribed as resembling on a larger scale some of the most 
beautiful of the rivers of England, a similarity which extends 
in its picturesque aspect to the Western Shore generally, and 
may account for the name Severn given by the early settlers 
to recall their "home" associations. 

The many indentations of the shore-line and constantly 
shifting combinations of headlands and bluffs, and the tinal 
expansion into the broad water of Eagle Keck bay, now con- 
tracting and then expanding the view as the steamer plows its 
way toward Indian Landing, present as varied and attractive a 
sail as any nine miles of river scenery in our country. 

ROUND BAY. 

Hound Bay is fourteen miles distant from Baltimore, and 
^'Mount Misery" at its northern side, rising 155 feet above the 
water gives a view commanding the bay, with its headlands, 
slopes, and the Island of St. Helena, the Severn with Annapo- 
lis in the distance, and also looking eastward, the perspective 
of the Magothy river or bay, with the Chesapeake beyond. 
This point was used as a signal station and fort during the 
late war, and would be a most eligible site for a summer re- 
sort and observatory were it made accessible to the citizens of 
Baltimore by a direct railroad to that city. It lies within a 
very short distance of the line surveyed for a "short line" 
road, and cannot be more than eight or ten miles from the ter- 
mination of the Curtis Bay Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio. 
This region is susceptible of being made a great pleasure re- 
sort and outer park for the city of Baltimore, and at the 
present rate of railroad speed could be put within twenty 



134 



minutes ride of the city. None of the greater parks of the 
European capitals are so near as this is to Baltimore city, and 
no city in the United States has so beautiful a spot as near. 

Indian Landing, about three miles distant from Round Bay, 
is an attractive place. Three little islands abreast of the 
"Landing" add pi'cturesqueness to the locality. Fish, crabs 
and oysters are plentiful here and in E-ound Bay, and duck 
shooting is extensively indulged in at the latter point. 

The advantages of Round Bay as a naval station have been 
urged, and especially by Admiral Porter, as preferable for an 
iron-clad or monitor arsenal to League Island. It has also 
been advocated as a terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Canal. Its sloping banks and hillsides are peculiarly adapted 
to vineyards and fruit orchards. The finest sand for glass- 
making is mined and shipped from this point. 

SOUTH BALTIMORE HARBOR AND lArPROVEMENT COMPANY. 

The life and activity displayed at Curtis Bay since 1887, is 
wonderful. In that year, the South Baltimore Car Company 
purchased twenty acres of land from the South Baltimore 
Harbor and Improvement Company, which has made a great 
change in that region. 

The Improvement Company is the owner of about 1,500 
acres of land, and five miles of water front on the south side 
of the Patapsco river. The land is beautifully located, sloping 
from the waters edge to a heighth of about 200 feet. The 
vicinity is free from all malarious influences, and is regarded 
as one of the healthiest locations adjoining the city of Balti 
more. The • center of the water front consists of the famous 
land bound harbor of Curtis Bay, one of the most picturesque 
sheets of water in the State. There is an average depth of 
water of 25 feet in front of the property', allowing the largest 
steamers to discharge their cargoes. An immense pier has 



135 



been erected, 800 feet long and 100 feet wide, for the use of 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which connects with the 
property by its Curtis Bay Branch. 

The advantages of South Baltimore or Curtis Bay for manu- 
facturing purposes can not be overestimated. Already, many 
leading capitalists from all sections of the United States, have 
recognized its advantages for the investment of capital, and 
many large industries have been started there in preference to 
other sections of the country. Among the leading enterprises 
which have been established on Curtis Bay within the last five 
years, may be mentioned the large sugar refinery which can be 
seen from any elevated point in Baltimore. It has a capacity 
of 12,000 barrels of refined sugar daily, and gives employment 
to 150 men. The South Baltimore Car Works, which are in 
full operation, are turning out an average of fifteen new freight 
cars daily. About 500 men are employed in the shops and the 
works are kept busy. Qp to the present time about 5,000 
cars have been sent out and the yearly business amounts to 
over $1,000,000. Among the roads for which cars have been 
built by this concern are the Baltimore and Ohio, Richmond 
and Danville, Atlantic Coast Line, Wilmington and Northern, 
West Virginia Central, Eastman Heater Car Company of 
Boston, Hartford and Connecticut Western, and B. and O. 
Southwestern. 

Among the other leading enterprises located at Curtis Bay, 
are the Ryan & McDonald Machine Shops, nut and bolt man- 
ufactory, South Baltimore Foundry, barrel factory, and others 
in contemplation of erection. The Ryan & McDonald Ma- 
chine Shops were removed to Curtis Bay from Waterloo, New 
York. 

The South Baltimore Harbor and Improvement Company 
have erected on tiieir property several hundred neat and sub- 
stantial brick houses, which are in great demand by the grow- 
ing population. The company has a large quantity of unim- 



136 



proved land wliicli tliej will sell or lease for manufacturing or 
dwelling-liouse purposes at moderate rates. Manufacturers 
will find it to their interest to examine this property before 
locating elsewhere. The town contains several schools and 
a Presbyterian, a Catholic, a Methodist, a Baptist and an 
Episcopal chnrclL An electric raihvay is now in course of 
construction from the city of Baltimore to the southern limits 
of the Curtis Bay property, the cars to run every ten or fifteen 
minutes, and the fare to be only five cents. 

CALVERT COUNTY. 

Calvert county, a peninsula lying between the Chesapeake 
bay and Patuxent river, has an area of 218 scpiare miles, and 
possesses many advantages calculated to be attractive to the 
home-seeker of moderate or limited means. Lands are cheap, 
and the people are willing to encourage and invite iumiigration 
by disposing of them on the most favorable terms. The 
cheapness of land is not accounted for by the poorness of the 
soil, as some might infer, but by the sparseness of population, 
there being but about 9,860 souls in the county, white and 
colored, and vast tracts of land easily improved lie unbroken 
by plow from year to year. The whites in the county number 
4,757, and the colored, .5,103. Land thickly wooded with well- 
grown pines can be bought for two dollars an acre, while good 
productive cleared lands can be bought at from four to ten 
dollars per acre, according to situation and improvements. 
A short time since a fine farm in good state of cultivation, 
with water frontage, improved by dwelling and barns, con- 
sisting of 400 acres, sold for the incredibly small sum of one 
thousand and thirty dollars. And this is not run down, worn 
out land, but will yield 20 hogsheads of tobacco and 150 
barrels of corn next season, with proper culture. 

The finest river-bottom farm lands, the cream of the county, 
can be bought for twenty dollars an acre. In a ride through 



137 



llie county one readily observes that by far the greater part of 
the land is nniniproved, and this simply because, as has been 
intimated, our farmers have their hands full to cultivate the 
lands already cleared. The land donominated improved is as 
good naturally as that now under cultivation, and yields readily 
and kindly to the efforts of the husbandman as the occasional 
patch, often in the midst of a pine forest, taken up and culti- 
vated by the aspiring freedman, abundantly attests. That no 
such thing as a real estate bureau or concerted real estate boom 
exists in this, as in other Southern Maryland counties, is a 
matter of real surprise to those who are acquainted with the 
advantages of Calvert county. Turning from the mere mat- 
ter of land to other advantages, we would name large deposits 
of iron ore and silica. Iron ore of line quality ai)ounds, but, 
owing to the absence of land transportation, has never been 
put to practical use. Given a railroad, and Calvert would 
■compete with Prince George's as an iron producing county. 
The silica mines, however, have been worked extensively and 
profitably, the silica produced being of a quality unsurpassed 
by any in the world. These mines are located in the northern 
part of the county, near Dunkirk. The forests contain all the 
native woods, and the cutting and sale of poplar wood for 
commercial purposes is proving quite a source of revenue, as is 
also the sale of oak and chestnut cross-ties. 

This industry, however, must be confined to the forests con- 
tiguous to the river and bay or their tributary creeks, as all 
transportation to market is by water. The advantages for 
shipping by steamer and sailing vessels are as satisfactory as 
water transportation can possibly be. Rates are cheap, travel 
is comfortable, and trips are as frequent as freight and passenger 
traffic demand. In the summer of 1891, during the fruit season, 
Calvert had two steamers daily plying between the bay and 
river wharves and Baltimore. Tobacco, corn and fruit are the 
staple crops of the county. The soil, composed of light, rich, 



sand J loam, is naturally adapted to the free production of these 
crops. Eighteen hundred pounds of tobacco to the acre or 
from seven to ten barrels of corn may be easily raised on the 
better class of farms on the river front, while only slightly less 
will be ])roduced by the same class of farms inland or on the bay. 
It is a fact not generally known, but no less true, that the seasons 
in Calvert are several days in advance of any county in the State, 
and early fruits, strawberries, particularly, may be marketed at 
least a week earlier than can be done even by Anne Arundel. 
This also applies to vegetables. Corn of the Adams' Early 
variety was eaten from the garden of a resident of Prince 
Frederick on the 25th day of June the past year, and the 
season was nnusually backward. What might be done under 
more favorable conditions may be imagined. 

The oyster industry affords employment to about fifteen 
hundred men and boys during the fall and winter months. 
Tlie eye of the public is now upon the oyster bed or "rock," 
the natural home of the bivalve, while the planting industry is 
in its infancy. Nearl}' all of Calvert's shores have been nat- 
ural oyster beds, and that they may become substantially 
such again it is simply necessary that the seed oyster be de- 
posited upon them. To engage in this business in a small 
way, or even more largely, needs but little capital, and large 
returns are sure and speedy. At Solomon's Island and also at 
Broome's Island are large settlements dependent solely upon 
the oyster trade for a livelihood. They live comfortably, own 
their homes and are out of debt. 

As to the healthfulness of the county, there has never been 
an epidemic, and it is a fact of some significance that Calvert's 
doctors, almost without exception, are engaged in farming or 
some other employment in addition to the practice of medi- 
cine. 

The people are becoming more and more aroused to the 
importance of public education, and the graded public schools, 



139 



white and colored, have a liberal support and large patronage, 
and are well taught by competent teachers, affording ample 
opportunity for all the youths in the county to secure a good 
English education. The close proximity to Baltimore and 
Washington, with their advantages of higher education, has 
seemed in the past to render the establishment of a school of 
college grade unnecessary, although there is a demand for a 
high school at Prince Frederick. Of churches, the M. E., the 
M. E. South, the Protestant Episcopal and the Eoman Catholic, 
have organizations in the county, their relative wealth and 
numerical strength being indicated by the order in which they 
are here named. In the aggregate, they have a membership 
of about 3,400, or over one-third of the population, and forty- 
two church buildings, which is a showing creditable to the 
people. At present, three church buildings are in course of 
erection — a Methodist Episcopal, at Prince Frederick ; a 
Methodist Episcopal South, at St. Leonard's, and a Catholic, 
at Solomon's Island. Local option prevails throughout the 
county ; the people are eminently peaceable and law-abiding ; 
the county jail does not contain on an average more than two 
inmates per year, and the prosperity of the people is indicated 
in some degree by the fact that there are few paupers ; the 
entire pension list amounting to only $1,214.80 for the year 
1891. 

The county tax rate of ninety-one cents on the hundred 
dollars for all purposes is not high, but ev^en this will be de- 
creased when the courthouse is erected, to replace the one 
destroyed by fire in 1882, is paid for. 

A general survey of all available facts leads, inevitably, to 
the conclusion that there are few places better adapted to the 
requirements of an industrious class of immigrants than Cal- 
vert county. Capital could, undoubtedly, be usefully and 
profitably employed in developing the resources. 



140 



PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY. 

Prince George's is one of the leading counties of the State. 
It area is 480 square miles. According to the census of 1890, 
the population was 26,080, divided as follows : Whiites, 14,- 
832; colored, 11,245. Its proximity to the National Capital, 
which it joins on the south, and to one of the largest seaports 
on the Atlantic coast; its manufacturing industries; its pic- 
turesque scenery; its undulating surface; its numerous and 
abundant springs of clear, cold water; its running streams, 
tributary to its two grand, historic boundary rivers, make it 
one of the favored spots in Maryland. Then, add to this its 
ores and furnaces ; its fisheries and oyster beds ; its commer- 
cial facilities, by its numerous railroads and rivers; its educa- 
tional institutions, and its prominence as a tobacco-growing 
country — and any one can see how blessed it is. Its people 
are hospitable, and its lands are cheap enough to make it a 
most desirable location for the investment of money for per- 
;8ons desiring a home, and it offers special inducements to peo- 
ple who wish to live in a place which affords such unusual 
advantages. 

Prince George's county is bounded on the north by Howard, 
on the east by Anne Arundel and Calvert counties, from 
which three counties it is separated by thePatuxent river, on the 
south by Charles, and on the west by the Potomac river and the 
District of Columbia and Montgomery county. Its soil is 
varied, mostly of loam and sand, mixed with clay, with under- 
lying strata of marl and cemented sand, resembling sandstone. 

The people are warm-hearted and genial, and many of them 
are descendants of the Lord Baltimore party that settled in 
Southern Maryland. The principal industry of the county is 
tobacco raising, which is grown in large quantities in the "For- 
est," just above Upper Marlboro, and in the "tobacco belt," in 
the lower part of the county. Near the borders of the Dis- 



141 



trict of Columbia and on the railroad the large tobacco planta- 
tions have been divided up into small truck farms. 

The other staples are wheat, corn, rye and grapes. Owing 
to the decrease in prices of tobacco many of the farmers have 
given up tobacco growing and are trying fruit raising and 
dairy farming, in which their efforts have met with great 
success. 

There has been a considei'able boom in real estate for some 
time. That part of the county around "Washington by persons 
desiring suburban residences; and, since the projected railway 
from the Chesapeake to Washington has started, quite a flurry 
has been felt in the real estate market in regard to land,. 
This railroad, if built, will add materially to the value of land 
in the lower part of the county which it traverses, and will 
open up a portion of the county which is somewhat backward, 
owing to the lack of railroad facilities. It is a great scheme, 
and should meet with the approbation of every citizen of the 
county. By actual count, nearly three hundred houses were 
erected from Washington t© and including Laurel, on the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in two years, ending July, 1891. 
That's a record which goes far to establish the prediction made 
that in time there will be a continuous city connecting the two 
cities of Baltimore and AV^ashington. 

Much has been said recently about Scandinavian immigra- 
tion to Maryland, and we are pleased to note that these people- 
find our State offers many inducements. A party of them 
who have resided in Michigan for the past few years, recently 
removed to Prince George's county and purchased land near 
Laurel, only eighteen miles from Washington. We were 
favored with a call from them lately, and one of the gentlemen 
remarked : "We are pleased with our new home, and have 
purchased improved farms, and will soon be established. I 
can recommend this country to my people, and expect many 
of my old neighbors will follow me to Maryland." 



142 



The tax rate is gradually decreasing, owing to the improve- 
ments being erected on the lands. The tax rate is now only 
eighty cents on $100, a decrease of ten per cent, since 1888, 
although the county was at a heavy expense for repairing 
bridges and roads destroyed by the storms during the year, 
1891. 

The lands are cheap in the lower part of the county, aver- 
aging from $85 to $20 per acre. Those in the upper part are 
much higher, owing to the close proximity to the national 
capital. They can be bought from $20 to $100 per acre. 

The county is traversed by three railroads — the Baltimore 
and Potomac, the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Washington 
City and Point Lookout Railroad, This last has not been com- 
pleted, but hands are at work upon it now, under charge of its 
president. It runs from Brandywine to Mechanicsville. 

The school facilities are as good as those of any county in 
the State. Prince George's has in its limits the Maryland 
Agricultural College, an academy at Upper Marlboro, under 
the charge of two eflScient teachers ; and the public school sys- 
, tern throughout the county is considered to be equal to that of 
any other in the State. 

While agriculture is the chief pursuit, the county also has 
something of a reputation as a manufacturing district. It 
has a large smelting furnace at Muirkirk, and one of the 
largest hosiery establishments in the United States, is con- 
ducted by Mr.' Henry W. Clagett, at the House of Eeforma- 
tion, at Cheltenham, by the labor of the inmates of that insti- 
tution. He recently made one of the largest shipments of 
hose that has ever been made in the United States. Durinsr 
the summer, there are a great many canning factories in opera- 
tion throughout the county. 

The Maryland Agricultural College, at College Park, on 
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, is located in this county, 
and is now one of the best and most successful institutions in 



143 



the State. The farm is a model one and the College has a 
full corps of ten professors, besides special instructors and 
lecturers, and is prepared to give thorough instructions in all 
"those branches of learning relating to agriculture." Every 
department is in charge of a competent specialist, secured by 
a fair salary, and supplied with the latest and best appliances 
to facilitate instruction. AVithin a year several thousand dol- 
lars have been expended for models and apparatus of the most 
approved patterns. The last report of tlie College shovt'S that 
the institution is gaining in number of students, and in many 
ways is substantially improved, and better prepared than ever 
before, to do well the work for which it was established. 

HISTORIC TOWNS. 

Upper Marlboro, the county seat, is a beautiful little village 
of about 800 inhabitants, fifteen miles from Washington by 
the Marlboro turnpike. This town is the oldest in the county. 
It has two newspapers, both ably edited, three schools and four 
churehes. Laurel, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, mid- 
way between Baltimore and Washington, is the largest town 
in the county and contains 1,984 inhabitants, an increase of 
778 since the census of 1880, or 64.51 per cent. Laurel also 
has several factories, which give employment to many laborers 
at remunerative prices, a bank, two newspapers, four churches 
and three schools. It is an incorporated citj', and is governed 
by a mayor and city council. 

The old historic town of Bladensburg, known the country 
over as a once famous place for duels, is a short distance from 
the District of Columbia, on the Baltimore and Ohio Bailroad. 
It has several good schools and churches, and is governed by 
three commissioners. It also contains two large flouring mills, 
whose reputation for the quality of the flour and corn meal 
produced, is well established. Its population is about a 
thousand. 



144 



The next on the list is Hyattsville, which has been built up 
in the last ten years from a few scattering farm houses to one 
of the most beautiful little villages in the country. According 
to the census of 1890, it has a population of 1,509 inhabitants, 
an increase of 1,221 since the census of 1880, or 423.96 per 
cent. This increase is greater than any city or town in the 
State since the census of 1880. It is well supplied with 
schools and churches. This town is only a short distance from 
Bladensburg, and has railroad connections with both Balti- 
more and Washington. 

The dairyman can find no better location for the success of 
his line of business than is afforded by the lands adjacent to 
the B. & O., in the neighborhood of Baltimore and Washing- 
ton. These lands are fertile, well watered, will furnish the 
best of pastures, and produce large crops of all necessary foods 
for cattle. A particularly strong point also in their favor is 
the extremely low prices at which these can be purchased, as 
the owners have placed them on the market at from twelve 
dollars to twenty dollars per acre, and will make the terms 
such as any energetic, pushing man would have no difficulty in 
meeting. All of these lands are within an hour's ride of 
either Baltimore or Washington, and are bound to increase 
largely in value in the next few years. The markets of these 
cities are the best in the country, and the good dairyman will 
receive as high prices for the product as he could get in any 
other city in the Union. 

Nottingham is a summer village on the Potomac. Piscata- 
way is a little antiquated town a few miles from the Potomac. 
It is one of tlie oldest towns in the county. 

The facilities in Prince George's county for manufacturing 
purposes are equal to those of any other county of the State, 
and industries are on the increase, as the many canneries that 
have been started of late will attest. The communication 
with the outside world, both by rail and water, are easy and at 



145 



all times accessible, as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad runs 
through the upper and the Baltimore and Potomac throuirh 
the lower part, while the balance of the county is drained by 
the Potomac and Patuxent rivers. No portion of the State 
offers better inducements for a class of thrifty immigrants. 
The soil is kind, the climate good, and nearly every product 
known to this section of our country can be grown with profit. 
Especially is this the case with fruits and vegetables. There 
is now a growing tendency towards the extensive cultivation 
-of the peach, and with the fact in view many large nurseries 
have been started. The time is probably near at hand when 
this county is destined to rival her Eastern Shore sisters in the 
growth of this delicious and profitable fruit. The soil is well 
adapted to the jjeach, and wherever tried this fruit has suc- 
ceeded well. The great want is an honest, industrious immi- 
gration, ' 

CHARLES COUNTY. 

Charles county, which comprises the southwestern portion 
of Maryland, has for its boundaries Prince George's on the 
north, the Patuxent river, separating it from Calvert, on the 
cast, St. Mary's also on the east, and the Potomac river, separ- 
ating it from Virginia, on the south and west. /Tlie area of 
the county is 460 square milesi The soil of the county is 
varied, and presents almost every kind of land known to the 
State of Maryland. Along the numerous water courses and 
in the many valleys that run through the cou)ity in every 
direction, a rich loam prevails of a quality best adapted to the 
growth of grain and fruit, and indeed, when properly culti- 
vated, it will produce luxuriantly anything that the climate 
will permit. Back on the hills from these valleys is found a 
rather stiff soil composed of white clay, sand and a small pro- 
portion of loam called "white oak soil." Woodlands generally 
are of this kind also. This is easily improved, and when made 
10 



146 



rich produces grass of the finest kind and in paying quanti- 
ties. In the eastern section of the county and along a 
narrow belt of the northwestern border, immediately on the 
Potomac river, is to be found a mixture of sand and loam 
peculiarly adapted to fruit growing and trucking. This is 
pronounced by those familiar with such interests to be 
much the same kind of soil as the most productive of the 
celebrated Anne Arundel trucking lands. Here and there 
throughout the county are to be found stiff red clay lands, 
which, though hardest to improve, if once made rich, are 
perhaps the most productive. They are certainly the best 
tobacco lands to be found here. An abundance of marsh 
marl in many localities makes the improvement of lands 
along the water courses comparatively easy and inexpensive. 
Land can be bought at any price from. $3 to $50 per acre, 
selling highest along the line of the Baltimore and Potomac 
Kailroad, whose Pope's CreeK Branch extends through the 
county, and near the numerous flourishing little villages 
that have been built up within the past ten years along its 
route. The average price per acre in buying fiirms is from 
$10 to $12. There is much land for sale, owing to a dis- 
position on the part of large landowners to decrease the size 
of their farms and give more attention to small fruits. 
Many farms remain in size as before the war, when culti- 
vated by slave labor, and as a consequence necessarily have 
become more or less exhausted, impoverishing their owners, 
because, with the poor labor that could be obtained and the 
depressed market of the staple corps of this section, it was 
impossible to find the means for improving the land. 

The principal products now are wheat, corn and tobacco. 
Grass is grown quite extensively, and more attention is 
being given to fruit within the past two years. The soils 
are abundantlj'- capable of raising fruits and vegetables of 
every description to be grown in Maryland. Facilities for 
transportation could not be better. The Baltimore and 
Potomac Railroad runs through the central portion of the 



147 



county throughout its whole length with daily passenger 
and freight trains. The Southern Maryland Railroad also 
runs through a portion of the eastern section, while daily 
boats ply the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers and the numer- 
ous tributaries of the former every day, both to Washington 
and Baltimore. 

Farming machinery is being improved as means will per- 
mit, but farmers have not as yet been able to make any 
decided improvement in their live stock. But few thor- 
oughbred cattle and horses are to be found, and one singular 
drawback to improvement in stock, especially cattle, seems 
to be a failure on the part of even some of the most practi- 
cal farmers, to realize that one good horse or cow will serve 
them more profitably than half a dozen bad ones poorly kept 
and with but little attention given them. 

But few manufactories exist, but there are inducements 
of various kinds for capitalists to look to this branch of 
industry. 

The amount of general mercantile business transacted in 
the county annually has been estimated by several trust- 
worthy merchants at about ^700, 000. The population in 
1890 was 15,191, divided as follows: white, 6,975, colored, 
8,215. 

Opportunities for industrious immigrants are everything 
that could be desired. Lands are cheap, easily tilled and 
quickly improved, while the distances from both Baltimore 
and Washington, and the ready facilities for reaching either, 
place them within quick and easy reach of market. The 
waters abound in the finest fish and oysters, and game of 
various kinds is abundant. The county seat is Port Tobacco. 
Marshall H'SiW, Glymont, Chapel Point and Lower Cedar 
Point are all in this county, and are perhaps, the most popu- 
lar excursion points on the Potomac. 

INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 

The shell mounds on the eastern side of the Potomac, 
from Nanjemory to the Chesapeake bay, which was onco 



148 



iucluded in the territory of the Wicomico Indians, have 
lately been investigated and disclose many interesting facts. 
The tribe was tirst mentioned by Capt. John Smith, who 
visited them- between 1607 and 1610. A full account of 
them is found in the Journal of Father Andrew White, who 
came over with Lord Baltimore's first colony. 

The shell heaps of the Potomac begin on Pope's creek 
near Newberg, Charles county. The Clifton shell mound, 
at this point, covers many acres of ground. Overlying the 
shells is a stratum of earth from one to three feet deep, 
whicb has been under cultivation since 1730, prior to which 
date it was covered with forest trees. The deposit of shells 
is from five to eight feet, and is composed almost exclusively 
of the shells of the common oyster, intermixed with the 
shells of the hard clam and the tortoise. Bones of birds^ 
beasts and fish are also found. The implements taken from 
this mound are axes and hammer and stones, which were 
used in opening the oysters. Fragments of pottery exhibit- 
ing a primative sort of glazing and decorated with designs, 
arc found. The most artistic specimens from this locality 
are in the National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum 
of Rome and the civic museums of Bologna and Ravenna 
and Copenhagen. Tobacco pipes, a net sinker, a skin 
dresser, broken knives and arrows have also been found. 
Pits of ashes or charcoal are frequent. These tires were kind- 
led for the double purpose of preparing food for the hungry 
fishermen, and steaming the oysters to facilitate their re- 
moval from the shells, before being dried and carried inland. 

At Lancaster's Landing, on the Wicomico, was obtained 
an axe worthy of special mention, from the fact that it is 
composed of European flint. The finding of this axe led to 
an inquiry on the part of Mr. Elmer R. Reynolds, which 
elicited the information that in the earliest colonial times an 
English vessel discharged a cargo of ballast at Lancaster's 
Landing, and that this ballast was chiefly composed of flint, 
which had probably been obtained at one of the numerous 



149 



chalk cliffs near the English channel. The Indians realized 
that this flint was superior to the minerals which they had 
used in the manufacture of their weapons. At an old 
Indian town at the headwaters of the Wicomico were found 
polished axes, three tinelv-finished pestles, one of which was 
nearly a yard in length, three spheroidal stones used in 
some original pastime, spearheads, knives, and many inter- 
esting beads of stone, bone, shell and glass. The beads Avere 
from one to two inches in length, and were symmetrically 
finished. The glass beads were of that .rare ancient type 
known to archwologists as Venetian polychrome, and were 
probably from the Muram factory. They were of various 
sizes, and, as their names indicate, of beautifully interwoven 
compound colors, among which red, white, blue and green 
predominated. Pipes of stone and clay, executed after 
ornate and complicated desigFis, were also found. 

The only human remains of the Wicomicoes were dis- 
covered in 1880, in an ossuary on the Potonuic In this 
sepulchre were the remains of three adult Indians. The 
pathological condition of the skull of one of these indicated 
the existence of some extraordinary disease. It was covered 
with deep pit-like cavities. 

The Wicomicoes, as a tribe, sold out their possessions to 
the colonists and moved away. A few, however, .embraced 
Christianity and remained behind. A majority of these 
converts and their descendants intermarried with the slave 
population. 

ST. MARY'S COUNTY. 

St. Mary's county forms the southern extremity of the 
Western Shore of Maryland, and has an area of 360 square 
miles. According to the census of 1890, the population was 
15,819, divided as follows: Whites, 8,060; cokwed, 7,759. 
It was the first county organization in the State, and its 
early history is most interesting. Bold, deep waters nearly 
surround the county, and afiiord excellent facilities for com- 



150 



tnerciiil intercourse. Ou the east and northeast, the Chesa- 
jieake bay and Patuxent river bound its entire length, on 
the soutli and west the Chesapeake bay, Potomac and Wi- 
comico rivers are its boundaries. Bird creek and a short 
line through terra firma separate it from Charles county. 
Besides being nearly surrounded by water courses of the 
grandest proportions, it is penetrated by rivers and bays of 
great beauty, which extend far into the interior, St. Mary's 
river is among the raost noted of these; on its middle course 
was located St. Afary's City, historically memorable as the 
seat of the first settlement of colonial Maryland, and the 
capital of the State. Of this no vestige now remains ex- 
cept the debris that marks the site where it once was. In 
1891, a monument was erected by the State on its site in 
memory of Leonard Calvert, the first Governor of the State. 
St. Clement's bay and Breton's bay penetrate the center of 
the county. On the latter is situated Leonardtown, the 
county seat, and largest town in the county. 

The county is rolling and generally naturally drained, 
and even along the water courses there is much diversified 
surface. The climate is tempered and softened by the large 
bodies of water around the county, which prevent sudden 
changes of temperature b}^ acting as reservoirs of heat. The 
soil, originally fertile, has in many places been worked to 
exhaustion by the culture of tobacco without any returns 
being made to the soil by the husbandman. Along the 
rivers and other water-ways the soil is still productive, and 
wherever the farming has been judicious, the lands compare 
favorably with similar lands in other sections. Tobacco and 
corn are the principal crops, wheat and oats occupying sub- 
ordinate places. Cattle and sheep do well, but are not 
raised to any extent. The horses generally are more or less 
thoroughbred, and some good racers have been raised in 
this county. Fruit orchards for market are the exception, 
yet the soil and climate are specially adapted to fruits of all 
kinds. Point Lookout, at the confluence of the Chesapeake 



151 



bay and Potomac river, and Piney Point, about fifteen miles 
up the Potomac river, have been patronized as watering 
places. 

The capabilities of this county are second to those of no 
other part of Maryland. The climate and soil admit of the 
cultivation of all the more important vegetables and fruits, 
and the waters swarm in season with the finest of fish, oys- 
ters, terrapins and wild fowl. When capital intelligently 
directed develops St. Mary's, returns may be expected in 
proportion to its many great advantages. 'Capitalists from a 
distance who have sought a home and a place for investment 
of funds in St. Mary's, are much pleased with their new 
homes, and the returns being made from money spent. One 
gentleman, after travelling all over the world, looking for & 
site on which to locate a home, settled on a beautiful plane 
overlooking Breton's Bay and the Potomac River. Ho had 
a steam yacht built in which to examine all the places along 
the water courses of the United States, and after several 
years spent in the hunt, decided in favor of St. Mary's 
county. 

He, like other settlers from a distance, has found the soil 
readily improved. The beautiful site he selected, with water 
in front capable of floating the largest craft, is but a sample 
of the innumerable points that may be converted into homes, 
whose beauty cannot be surpassed by the far-famed villas 
along the Mediterranean and its adjacent waters. Artesian 
wells sunk to the moderate depth of 100 to 300 feet give 
overflow wells, the flow being unceasing summer and winter. 

St. Mary's has good steamboat communication with Bal- 
timore, Norfolk, Washington and other points, but is defi- 
cient in railroad facilities. Two railroads have been laid ofl: 
through the county — one running to a point opposite Drum 
Point, on the Patuxent, at its mouth, where there is a mag- 
nificent harbor, and the other to Point Lookout. The road- 
beds are made, but rails have only been laid to Mechanics- 
ville, in the upper part of the county, to which point a train 



152 



runs daily from Brandywine, in Prince George's county, a 
station on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad. 

One-third of St. Mary's County consists of uncultivated 
land, while of the lands under cultivation, fenced in and 
built upon, there are large bodies that can be parceled out 
into farms, which, owing to the impoverishment of their 
owners or their desire to lessen the area under cultivation,, 
may be had at cheap rates. The soil of the county varies 
in different parts of it. In the northern part it is light and 
sandy. On the Patuxent, and extending thence, with inter- 
vals of poorer soil between, to the Wicomico and the Poto- 
mac, it is composed chiefly of loamy clay, naturally very 
fertile, and still so in many instances. Toward the mouth 
of the Patuxent, strong white oak ^oils are found, and these 
also form, for the greater part, the soils on the bay and the 
Potomac River. In the middle of the county are the light 
sandy clay loams, easily and cheaply w'orked, and admirabh^ 
adapted to the growth of the cereals, tobacco, fruits and 
vegetables, the latter of which mature from two weeks to a 
month earlier than in the truck farms and gardens further 
north. The fisheries are also valuable, and besides lime, 
which may .either be burned from shells or be had in Balti- 
more and cheapl}^ transported to a landing, there are old 
Indian shell banks, shell and green sand marl of fair quality, 
the refuse of the fisheries, and an abundance of seaweed on 
the shores, whereby worn-out lands may be renovatecl. 
The climate is temperate, the extremes of heat and cold 
rarely felt for more than a few days at a time, the rigor of 
winter being mitigated by latitute in part from the milder 
air of the bay. 

THE TOWNS OF ST. JIARYS. 

In the appearance of its towns and roadside settlements, 
St. Mary's county presents the contrasts one would naturally 
expect to find in an ancient community on the verge of a. 
new and more vigorous life. Leonardtown, the county seat,. 



163 



and Charlotte Hall, are each in their way typical specimens 
of the old-fashioned MarN'land village; but Mechanicsville, 
the present terminus of the Southern Md, R. R., and Cali- 
fornia, Morganza and a number of other settlements in var- 
ious parts of the «ounty, look as though they had been 
taken up from a much younger community and transplanted. 
They are, however, the product of home industry and enter« 
prise almost exclusively, and their appearance proves that 
St. Mary,s has within her own borders the elements of pros- 
perity, and in her own people the capacity and energy to 
improve the opportunities which the influx of capital and 
r labor will some day place within their grasp. 

There is a quaint picturesqueness, a distinct flavor of 
"otd-timeness'' about Leonardtown which, together with its 
advantages of situation and its healthiness, make it a de- 
lightful summer residence. Many persons go to Leonard- 
town from Washington, and remain throughout the season, 
a fact which probably explains the evident prosperity of its 
two hotels. The appearance of the latter is characteristic 
of the place. Both are long, low wooden buildings, with 
dormer windows and comfortable porches, the paradise of 
idlers o' summer nights. The two buildings confront each 
other on either side of the principal street — a broad 
thoroughfare, with a "green" or "common" down the 
middle. A short distance from them, on the eastern side 
of the street, is the court-house, of plastered brick, erected 
in 1831, on the site of the old building destroyed by tire. 
An entry in the county records states that the fire occurred 
on the 8th of March, 1881, an<l that on the 4th of June, in 
the same year, a loan was obtained from Robert Gilmor, of 
Baltimore, and a contract entered into with Ignatius Mndd 
to I'ebuild the structure for $8,510. The corner-stone was 
laid on the 6th of August, 1831, by Captain George Dent, 
aged 75, "a patriot of the revolution." The building is 
roomy and substantial,' and is surrounded by an inclosure, 
in one corner of which stands the jail, a small stone 
strueture. 



154 



Almost every Maryland town of age has one or more 
buildings whose appearance carries one back to the palmy 
days of the ante-bellum epoch. Solid brick they are, with 
wide halls, high ceilings and large apartments, some of them 
wainscoted. Leonardtown has its mansion of this type in 
Tudor Hall. It is now the residence of Joseph H. Key, and 
was originally the home of the Barnes family. It is a large 
brick building, surrounded by a park of noble oaks and 
commanding an extended view. The estate, which lies im- 
mediately about the town, comprises about 800 acres. In 
this portion of St. Mary's the country is high and rolling, 
and the site of the town is an elevated plateau, which looks 
down on-Britton's bay, a broad and picturesque tributary of 
the Potomac. The village, which has a population of be- 
tween 500 and 600, contains half a dozen thriving stores, 
two neat churches (Catholic and Protestant Episcopal) and a 
public hall belonging to the St. Mary's Reading Room and 
Debating Society. The latter building was formerly a 
Methodist church, but was purchased about fifteen years 
ago and converted to its present use. The Methodist con- 
gregation now worships in a church about half a mile from 
the town. The debating society was organized over fifty 
years ago, and is still in a flourishing condition. 

Leonardtown has no fire engine nor bank, although there 
would seem to be urgent need of both, as the town is mainly 
built of wood, and is the trade centre of a large section of 
■country. Before the war, a savings bank — the St. Mary's 
Savings Institution — flourished, but since the war, it has not 
been revived. Although the nearest railroad station, Mecban- 
idsville is some sixteen miles distant, and the town, like the 
greater portion of St. Mary's, is practically dependent upon 
river transportation, considerable business is transacted, and 
from the general appearance of thrift and industry, with 
which a stranger can scarcely fail to be impressed, it is safe 
to predict that with the advent of the railroad, Leonardtown 
will commence a rapid and vigorous growth. 



155 



An illustration of what may be expected to follow the 
completion of the Southern Maryland Railroad is afi'orded, 
in a small way, in the appearance of the bustling little town 
of Mechanicsville, which sprang into being a few years ago, 
and is now a thriving little village, growing all the time. 
Its one hotel bears the singular name of the "P. K. House." 
What the letters stand for nobody seems to know, and 
the only explanation given of the choice is that it was a 
whim of the builder. On a sign in front of the house is 
printed in bold letters the sentence, "As we travel through 
life, let us live by the way," a bit of advice to which point 
is given by the fact that the proprietor combines with the 
trade of mine host the manufacture of coffins. There are 
several very pretty cottages in Mechanicsville, and the gene- 
ral appearance of the place is that of an energetic, bright 
and ])ushing little town. Not less enterprising in their way, 
are the hamlets which have sprung up in the wake of the 
sawmill at various points in the county, some of which, on 
the completion of the railroad, wnll doubtless develop into 
flourishing tov/ns. 

Three miles northwest of Mechanicsville is Charlotte 
Hall, a small village, interesting not only because of the 
ancient academy there, but on account of its remarkably 
pretty little church, erected as a memorial of Rev. Hatch 
Dent, first principal of the school. It is one of the most 
picturesque and attractive specimens of church architecture 
to be found in an}- part of the State. Charlotte Hall school 
has been brought to a high standard of efficiency under the 
present principal, Mr. William T. Briscoe, who has been 
connected with the institution for many years, and his assis- 
tants, Messrs. Edward T. Briscoe, R. W. Sylvester and G. 
D. Lancaster. It now has on its rolls eighty boys, varying 
in age from 9 to 20 years. The school is distinctively a 
Southern Maryland institution, but has a number of pupils 
from Baltimore and Washington, and from various points 
in Pennsylvania. It is managed by a board of twenty trus- 



156 



tees — ten for St. Marj's and ten for Charles county. The 
first meeting of the board was held on the first of July,. 
1774, and among those present were Gov. Plater and Dr. 
James Craik, afterwards a distinguished surgeon in the con- 
tinental army and the intimate friend of Washington. It 
was held at the present site of the school, then known as 
Cool Spring, from a spring which still enjoys a local celebrity 
on account of its medicinal qualities. The revolution com- 
ing on put a stop to all further proceedings, but after the 
war the project was revived and the school established. All 
the buildings now in use are oomparatively modern, with 
the exception of one, erected in 1803, but their appearance 
is quaint and old-fashioned — especially the one-story hall 
containing the recitation-rooms and librar}'. Many distin- 
guished Marylanders have been identified with Charlotte 
Hall as members of the board of trustees, and among the 
signatures to the oath exacted of them, may be found those 
of Roger B. Taney, Bishop 'Claggett, and three Governors 
of Maryland— George Plater, James Thomas and Joseph 
Kent. In the oldest record-book of the academy is in- 
scribed the form of oath under the colonial government, 
professing allegiance to Great Britian, which has been 
marked out by some patriot hand — the same, probably, that 
wrote the oath of allegiance to the new State of Maryland, 
which appears just beneath. Founded almost amid the 
storms of the revolution, Charlotte Hall is still what its 
originators intend.ed it to be — an academy of high grade — 
and in its vigorous old age it continues to redeem the prom- 
ises of its youth. Its influence for good on the people of 
Southern Maryland from generation to generation cannot 
well be over-estimated. 

TIDE MARSHES IN MARYLAND. 

The United States Department of Agriculture, in May, 
1889, issued an interesting report on the tide marshes of the 
United States, collated and prepared by D. M. Nesbit, of 
Prince George's- County, Maryland. By direction of the 



157 

United States Oommissiouer of Agriculture, the report was 
prepared from an agricultural standpoint. The following 
comprises that portion of the report treating of the tide 
.marshes of the State of Maryland : 

The riparian laws of the State are few, and thev only 
reflect or reiterate the general principles of common-law 
riparian rights. The decision of our Courts have, on this 
subject, been confined to rights between neighbors and to 
the navigation and extent of ownership of water-courses 
and rivers between opposite counties, or citizens of those 
counties. 

There are many large tidal marshes in the State, the 
reclamation of which would be very beneficial to the public 
health, and add millions to the general wealth. I know of 
and can learn of no individual or association "largely (or in 
any waj-) engaged in reclaiming or owning considerable 
tracts of reclaimed land." 

Thousands of the most fertile acres could, with little com- 
parative expense, be brought into the highest state of pro- 
ductive cultivation. Many persons own and pay taxes on 
tidal marshes, which, in their present condition, are rather 
nuisances than sources of profit, but if reclaimed would be 
far more valuable than the adjoining cultivated upland. 
This is a matter which opens a wide field for investigation, 
and is suggestive of great wealth, now hidden and useless. 

Worcester Count)/. Worcester county occupies the coast 
of Maryland from Delaware to Virginia, a distance of 40 
miles, and is the only county in the State that touches the 
Atlantic. It is protected from the wash of the ocean by a 
sand ridge, between which and the mainland are several 
bays, forming a continuous water-way from one to six miles 
wide, with but a single permanent outlet in the county to 
the ocean. There are many thousand acres of tide marshes 
on the mainland, bay shores and creeks, none of which have 
sheen diked. Aside from the general causes which have 



158 



retarded improvement in Maryland, the tidal action in these 
bays is not sufficient to secure drainage through sluices for 
marshes that are near the level of mean high water,- a 
condition which will preclude reclamation not based on the 
use of machinery for elevating the drainage water. There 
are marshes in the southwestern part of the county, on the 
I'ocomoke river, to which this objection does not apply. 
These are in all respects similar to marshes in the adjoining 
county of Somerset. 

Somerset County. The marshes of Somerset are estimated 
at twent^^-tive thousand acres. Unlike Worcester county, 
the tidal action is sufficient for drainage, but little has been 
done to improve the marshes, and no remarkable features 
are presented. The unimproved marshes are valuable for 
taxation at 25 cents per acre. 

Wicomico County. The marshes of Wicomico, amounting 
to several thousand acres, are mainly on the JSTanticoke 
river, ^o reclamations are reported. 

Dorchester County. On the Nanticoke river, from head 
of tide to IS'anticoke Point, in Dorchester county, are 5,000 
acres of tide marsh, at a general elevation above low water 
of 3| to 4 feet ; the common rise of the tides is 3 to 3J feet;, 
the highest storm-tides rise 6 feet. The marshes are used 
for grazing; none are improved. They are valued at $1 to^ 
$5 per acre, and upland from $6 to $30. 

The mud flats and low marshes in this section produce 
wild oats, and lower down the Nanticoke river other grasses, 
some of them making pretty good hay for stock and packing. 
The marshes are of very little value; upland from $5 to $20, 
Many years ago an attempt was made on the Nanticoke 
above Vienna to reclaim land for rice and cojton. This was 
abandoned, and no eftbrt has been made for a half century 
or more. The majority of landowners in the lower JSTanti- 
coke and Fishing Bay, busy themselves catching o^'sters, 
muskrats and otters, and take but little interest in the im- 
provement of land. 



159 



Caroline County. There are in Caroline county 500 to 
1,000 acres of tide marsh on the east side of the Upper 
Choptank. This land is used only for grazing, and is val- 
ued at about $2.50 per acre, while upland is worth from $10 
to $25. It is at a sufficient elevation above low water to af- 
ford perfect drainage, and is not subject to very high storm- 
tides. None is diked. 

Talbot County. Talbot county has a large frontage on 
tide water and contains many thousand acres of marsh' land, 
which might be reclaimed at a moderate cost and made very 
valuable. Notwithstanding the favorable location, good 
quality, elevation above low vrater and freedom from storm- 
tides, none has been diked. 

The general elevation of the marshes above low water is 
about live feet. Common tides rise about -three feet and 
storm-tides about two feet higher. The marshes are gener- 
ally owned in small tracts. They are chiefly alluvial, six to 
eight feet. The vegetation is a coarse cane grass, reed, flag 
or cat-tail and rush, and is only used as spring pasture. The 
value of upland is about $50 per acre, adjoining marsh 
thrown in. 

Talbot county borders on the east on the Choptank and 
Tuckahoe rivers. These streams are comparatively narrow 
but deep. The marshes are nearly a mile wide, (Average,) 
growing narrower as you ascend. The courses of the stream 
are serpentine, with reaches striking first one shore then the 
other, giving in these bends vast bodies of marsh, which are 
covered only by storm-tides, the average tide leaving them 
from one to three feet above. Cattle pasture until June, 
when the grasses become too rank and hard. They are 
burned over during winter. 

With such treatment as marshes on the Delaware get, 
they would grow immense crops of corn and timothy. They 
would not need high embankments. I think this marsh 
land equal to any in the world. It could never be worn out. 



160 



Our salt-water streams, such as Tred Avon, Miles, W\'e, 
&c,, have no marsh, but solid shores that afford desirable 
places for residences, with salt-water luxuries and the tinest 
fruits at hand. 

- Kent Comity, The owners of marshes here have no 
knowledge of the mode of making them valuable. I have 
in mind at this time a tract of marsh that with $10 per acre 
properly spent would be worth $100 per acre. But there is 
more upland in this county than is cultivated properly, and, 
as a consequence, no inclination to reclaim marshes. ~ 

Cecil ComUy. The only land banked from the tides in this 
district was some ten acres of a farm Ij'ing on the Sassafras 
river. On account of muskrats the owners gave it up and 
let tlie bank go down some eight or ten years ago. Tiie 
farms in this section of Maryland (iirst district of Cecil 
count}') average 300 acres, and those bordering on the rivers 
especiallj' are cultivated by their owners, excepting several 
large farms, which contain from 600 to 1,200 acres. There 
is upland enough, and owners pay no attention to their 
marshes. 

Harford County. There are perhaps fifteen thousand 
acres of tide marsh in the county. The general elevation 
above low water is 1 to 2i feet. Common tides rises 8| 
feet; storm tides 1 to 2 feet higher. The marshes are gen- 
erally owned in large tracts. They are chiefly alluvial, with 
clay or sand sub-soil, depth about 4 feet. The vegetation is 
cat-tails and coarse grasses; the latter grazed to some ex- 
tent. The marshes of themselves are valueless; uplands 
worth from $10 to $25 per acre. No marshes have been re- 
claimed, and no attempts ever made to my knowledge.' 

Calvert County. Calvert is a narrow county lying between 
the Patuxent river and Chesapeake bay, and has tide-water 
on both sides, with large marsh areas. None have been 
diked. 

Prince George's County. The marslies are formed in the 
bends of our rivers, and sometimes contain one thousand 



161 

acres each. They are owned usually by those owning the 
lands bordering on them. They are covered by wild oats 
and other marsh grasses in summer, which fatten cattle 
very fast. When a farm adjacent to the marshes is sold, 
the marsh land is generally given in. No marshes have 
been reclaimed. 

Charles County. The vegetation of the marshes is fine 
three-edged grass, bulrushes, sedge, &c., used for grazing. 
Sedge is used for covering out-houses, and some sold for 
bedding and use in street cars. Marshes are worth about 
$3 per acre. None have been diked. 

St. Mary's County. St. Mary's county occupies the point 
of the peninsula between the lower Potomac on the south 
and west and the Patuxent and Chesapeake bay on the 
north and east. Being nearly surrounded by tide-water, it 
contains large areas of marshes, all unimproved, and pre- 
senting no features of peculiar interest. 

The larger marshes have usually a stream of fresh water 
running through them. They are covered with a coarse 
grass, which is valuable as pasture in early spring. I have 
tried peat as a fertilizer on high lands with good results. 

Marshes covered with eight inches or a foot of eariii from 
highlands manifest extraordinary fertility. 



GEWEBAIi STATISTICS OF MARYLAND. 

The Census Bulletins of 1890 disclose the following inter- 
esting and valuable statistics of the industries, &c., of Mary- 
land : 

COAL MINING INDUSTRY. 

The coal fields of Maryland are a part .of the extensive 
basin lying between the Daniss and Great Savage moun- 
tains, extending from the Pennsylvania State line through 
the western section of the State to the Cheat River, near 
the southern boundary of Tucker County, in West Vir- 
ginia, and constitute what are known as the Elk Garden 
11 



162 

Cumberland regions. The George's Creek or Cumberland 
region of Maryland is located in Allegany and Garrett 
Counties, and extends from the North Branch of the Poto- 
mac River at Piedmont to the Pennsylvania State line, a 
distance of about thirty miles, although actual mining oper- 
ations cover only about onc'-half that distance. The total 
area of this coal field is estimated at forty-four thousand 
acres, of which seventeen thousand acres contain the four- 
teen-foot vein. In the central portion of the basin, although 
the thickness of this vein may reach twelve feet, there is 
hardly a mine in which it can be said that more than ten 
feet is worked to any extent, while most of them save only 
seven feet six inches. It has been estimated that the avail- 
able coal in Maryland amounts to 4,000,000,000 tons. The 
average annual output in the past five years has been nearly 
2,840,000 tons. Should the present rate of mining con- 
tinue, the Big Vein, Six-foot Vein, and Four-foot Vein 
would not be exhausted in 400 years. The comparatively 
large production of coal from this limited area is furnished 
transportation facilities to the tide water and interior mar- 
kets by the Cumberland and Pennsylvania and the George's 
Cre^k and Cumberland Railroads, which traverse the region, 
reaching the Pennsylvania Railroad at Cumberland and the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Piedmont. The Chesa- 
peake and Ohio Canal, until its partial destruction by fiood 
in 1889, formed an avenue for the movement of a large por- 
tion of this product to tide water at Georgetown, District 
of Columbia. 

Mining operations have been conducted in this locality 
for about half a century. Up to the close of the year 1889, 
the total shipments amounted to over sixty-six million tons. 
The coal produced is bituminous, and being essentially a 
steam fuel, the principal markets have been found at the 
great manufacturing cities of New England as well as at the 
seaboard for the coaling of steamships. 

During the census year there were in operation thirty-one 
establishments equipped for the shipping of coal. In addi- 



163 



tion, reports were received from forty-nine small operators 
supplying local trade. The total production for the census 
year 1889 was 2,939,715 short tons, valued at $2,517,474 at 
the mines, or an average of 85.6 cents per ton. The 
product for the census year ending June 30, 1880, was 
2,228,917 short tons, valued at $2,585,537 at the mines, 
or ^1.16 per ton. The total number of persons employed 
in all departments, including superintendents, engineers, 
mechanics, and clerical force, during the census year, was 
3,734, and the amount of wages paid was $1,730,689. Since 
March, 1888, the price for mining coal in the George's Creek 
region has been 50 cents a ton. Drivers are paid $1.85 a 
day; laborers, $1.50 to $1.85 a day, average $1.60; carpen- 
ters, $1.75 to $2.25, average $2.15; blacksmiths, $2.00 to 
$2.50, average $2.25; engineers, $2.50, with a few making 
$2.75; roadmen, $1.93 to $2.12 a day, average $2.10. While 
the price for mining is equal to that in competing regions, 
the wages of drivers and laborers are less. The average 
number of days worked when collieries were shipping coal 
was 196. During the calendar year, 1888, the output 
amounted to 3,479,470 short tons. This falling off in the 
output during 1889, as compared with that of 1888, was due 
not so much to a decline in the demand as to want of trans- 
portation facilities, the result of the practical abandonment of 
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The canal has since been 
repaired and is now in complete working order. 

The shipments of coal from the George's Creek or Cum- 
berland Region of Maryland, from 1870 to 1889', was as 
follows: By Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 27,285,325 long 
tons; Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 10,532,579 long tons; 
Pennsylvania Railroad, 4,217,829 long tons; total, 42,035,- 
733 long tons. 

SLATE-MINING INDUSTRY. 

Maryland is one of the largest slate-producing States in 
the Union. According to the census of 1890, the produc- 
tion for 1889 was as follows: There were five quarries pro- 



161 

duciug 23,100 squares of roofin.^ slate, with a total value of 
$105,745, being excelled by only three other States, Penn- 
sylvania, Vermont and Alaine. 

The total value of slate produced in Maryland for other 
purposes was $4,263, making a total value of all slate pro- 
duced of $110,008. The total wages paid was $65,267; all 
other expenses in addition to wages $20,177, making the 
total expense of producing the entire amount of slate $85,- 
444. There is invested in slate land, $257,550; buildings 
and fixtures, $15,500; in stock and machinery, $47,950, or 
a total capital of $374,000. All five of the slate quarries in 
Maryland are located in the Peach Bottom region in Har- 
ford county, and the slate produced is said to be the^^finest 
in the world. 

sparrows' point steel woeks. 

The last annual report of the Maryland Steel Company at 
Sparrow's Point, says that the Bessemer steel furnaces at 
that place are capable of an output of 2,000 tons a day, and 
the rail mill also has a large daily capacity, both mills at 
present being in successful operation. Several more mills 
will be erected in the near future, consisting of a plate and 
shape mill, and a large, open-hearth furnace plant, con- 
structed wholly for delivering the hundreds of varieties of 
material necessary for ships and in bridge and warehouse 
construction. 

The report gives the town a population at present of no 
less than 3,000 inhabitants. The estimated number of 
employees at the works is 4,000, and annually 400,000 tons 
of various forms of steel are delivered. Baltimore furnishes 
a laro-e proportion of the employes, and the main propor- 
tion of all necessary articles consumed by the inhabitants. 
Aside from developing Baltimore's local trade. Sparrows' 
Point has admirably added innumerable dollars' worth of 
foreign commerce to that port. The necessity of supplying 
suitable ore for the Bessemer Steel Works has given birth 
to communication with hitherto unknown ports, and almost 



165 

each day vessels laden with ore from Mediterranean ports or 
Cuba arrive in the Chesapeake. 

The co-operation of the company with the Bethlehem 
Iron Company and the Pennsylvania Steel Company haS 
also greatly enlarged Baltimore's ore importing traffic, much 
to the gratitication and profit of hundreds of business men. 
Hundreds of families residing in Baltimore are sustained by 
employment found at the works. 

IRON ORE AND GOLD. 

The product of Iron ores for Maryland in 1888 and 1889, 
was as follows : 

Maryland and Delaware, for 1880, 127,102 long tons, 
valued at ^428,244. For 1889, 29,380 long tons, valued at 
$68,240. The product of gold from Maryland in 1889, was 
valued at $10,369. 

PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON AND STEEL. 

According to the census of 1890, Maryland produced the 
following amount of pig iron, being the 13th in rank ot 
States: Completed furnaces, stacks 14; production of pig 
iron in tons of 2,000 pounds, 96,246, being 1 per cent, 
of total productions in the country, and an increase of 61.31 
per cent, in the State since the census of 1880. The recent 
building of four large coke furnaces by the Pennsylvania 
Steel Company at Sparrows' Point, nine miles from Balti- 
more, to smelt iron ores from Cuba, will bring Maryland 
more prominently forward as a manufacturer of pig iron. 
The production of Bessemer pig iron in Maryland, during 
the census year of 1890, amounted to 77,754 tons, and or 
steel of all kinds, 1,000 tons. 

TRUCK FARMS AND PRODUCTS. 

According to the census of 1890, in the district tributory 
to Baltimore, there was planted 37,181 acres in truck-farm 
crops, valued at $3,625,147.50, or $97.50 per acre. The 
men employed on these numbered 13,210; women, 1,450; 
children, 1,690; horses and other animals, 5,265; value of 
implements used, $778,094.00. The net income per acre on. 



166 

leading varieties of vegetables, was as follows: Asparagus, 
$87.75; beets, $80.60; string beans, .|28. 70; celery, $87.75; 
cabbage, $96.50; cucumbers, $27.50; kale, $47; water- 
melons, $42.00; other melons, $53.50; peas, $29.50; Irish 
potatoes, $68.50; sweet potatoes, $52.10; spinach, $37.60; 
tomatoes, $34.00. 

SEED FARMS AND FLORICULTURE. 

There are two seed farms in Marjdand consisting of 212 
acres of land, with a total valuation of $32,865, for farms 
implements and buildings. 

There are 102 florist establishments in Maryland, of 
which 7 are owned and managed by women. The largest 
conservatory is covered by 60,000 square feet of glass, and 
the total for all is 872,304 square feet, on 359 acres of laud. 
The value of tools is $22,285.98, and the total value of es- 
tablishments $758,904.48. There are employed in the 
horticultural establishments of Maryland, 302 men and 45 
women, with a total of wages paid to men $107,814, and to 
women $9,720. The plants propagated and sold in Mary- 
land was as follows: Roses propagated 259,592; hardy 
plants, 183,000; all other plants 2,360,484; total plant sales, 
$233,686.30; total cut flower sales, $265,175.74; per cent, 
of stock sold at wholesale, 40; per cent, of stock sold at 
retail, 60. 

STATISTICS OF HORSES, MULES AND ASSES. 

The number of horses, mules and asses on farms in Mary- 
land, on hand June 1st, 1890, was as follows: 

Horses, 130,395; mules, 14,064; asses, 97. Foaled in 
1889; horses, 11,855; mules, 209; asses, 32. Sold in 1889; 
horses, 7,296; mules, 831; asses, 26. Total horses, mules 
and asses died in 1889, 6,088. The number of horses in 
Maryland in 1860, was 93,406; in 1870, 89,696; in 1880, 
117,796, and in 1890, 130,395, an increase of 12,599 or 10.- 
70 per cent, over 1880. The number of mules and asses in 
Maryland in 1860, was 9,829; in 1870, 9,830; in 1880, 12,- 
561; in 1890, mules, 14,064, as^es, 97, an increase of 1,600 
or 12,74 per cent, over the census of 1880, 



167 



ASSESSED VALUATION OF PROPERTY IN MARYLAND. 

The assessed valnation of real and personal property in 
Maryland, according to the census of 1890, was as follows: 

Total assessed vakiation in 1880, $497,307,675. In 1890, 
it was 1482,184,824. The population of the State in 1880, 
was 934,943, and in 1890, it was 1,042,390. The assessed 
per capita in 1880, was |531.91. In 1890, $462.58, a decrease 
of 3.04 per cent. The increase of population for the same 
period was 11.49 per cent. 

STATISTICS OF EDUCATION. 

According to the census of 1890, the following changes in 
population and public school enrollment took place in Mary- 
land between 1880 and 1890. The per cent, of gain in pop- 
ulation in the State from 18.80 to 1890 was 11.49, while 
the per cent, of gain in public school enrollment was 
22.85. In 1880, there was enrolled in the public schools of 
of the State 149,981 scholars, and in 1890 there was enrolled 
184,251, a gain of enrollment in the public schools of 22.85,^ 
per cent. Tiie aggregate number of the teachers in the 
State were 3,826; white male, 858; female, 2,488; colored 
teachers, 480; male, 207; female, 273. The total white 
pupils in the public schools was 148,224; male, 76,288; fe- 
male, 71,936; colored pupils, 36,027; male, 17,932; female, 
18,095. The parochial schools in Maryland comprise about 
50 Catholic schools, with about 8,000 pupils; 11 Episcopal 
schools, with nearly 500 pu^jils, and nine Lutheran schools, 
with nearly 700 pupils. The private and parochial schools 
reported to January 15th, 1891, contained an aggregate of 
11,153 pupils; total white, 10,878; total colored, 275; white 
males, 6,548; females, 4,330; colored males, 158; females, 
117. Aggregate number of private teachers in the State, 
941; total white, 926; male, 630; female, 296; total colored 
teachers, 15; male, 9; female, 6. Aggregate number of pa- 
rochial teachers in the State, 236; total white, 230; male, 
63; female, 167; total colored, 6; female, 6. 



168 



The apparent relation of the sexes in the public schools 
was male teachers to female teachers nearly as 1 to. 2.6; 
white, 1 to 2.9; colored, 1 to 1.3. The night-schools in the 
State number 500. 



POPULATION OF MARYLAND BY COUNTIES. 



J 


Population. 


Increase. 




State. 


1890. 


1880. 


Decrease. 


Maryland 


1,042,390 


934,943 


107,447 








Allegany 


41,571 
34,094 
72,909 
434,439 
9,860 
13,903 
32,376 
25,851 
15,191 
24,843 
49,512 
14,213 
28,993 
16,269 
17,471 
27.185 
26,080 
18,461 
15,819 
24,155 
19,736 
39,782 
19,930 
19,747 


38,012 

28,526 
83,336 
332,313 
10,538 
13,766 
30,992 
27,108 
18,548 
23,110 
50,482 
12,175 
28,042 
16,140 
17,605 
24,759 
26,451 
19,257 
16,934 
21,668 
19,065 
38,561 
18,016 
19,539 


3,559 

5,568 

102,126 

137 

1,384 

'""l",733 

2,038 
951 
129 

2,426 

2,487 

671 

1,221 

1,914 

208 




Anne Arundel 




Baltimore 


10,427 


Baltimore city 


Calvert 


678 


Caroline 




Carroll 




Cecil 


1,257 
3,357 


Charles 

Dorchester 


Frederick 


970 


Garrett 

Harford 




Howard 




Kent 


134 


Montgomery 




Prince George 


371 


Queen Anne 


796 


Saint Mary 


1,115 


Somerset 

Talbot 


Washington 




Wicomico 

Worcester ; . . . . 









The total population of the State is 1,042,390, divided as 
follows: white, 824,149; colored, 218,004; Chinese, 197; 
Japanese, 6; Indians, 34. In 1880, the percentage of white 
population was 77.51; colored, 22.49, In 1890, it was: 
white, 79.06; colored, 20.92. In 1850, the white population 
was 417,943; in 1860, 515,918; in 1870, 605,497; in 1880, 
724,693; in 1890, 824,149. In 1850, the colored population 
was 165,091; in 1860,171,131; in 1870,175,391; in 1880, 



169 

210,230 ; in 1890, 218,004. From 1850 to 1860, the increase 
of white population was 97,975; from 1860 to 1870, 89,579; 
from 1870 to 1880, 119,196; from 1880 to 1890, 99,456. 
The increase of colored population from 1850 to 1860, was 
6,040; from 1860 to 1870,4,260; from 1870 to 1880,34,839; 
and from 1880 to 1890, 7,774/ The per cent, of increase of 
white population from 1850 to 1860, was 23.44; from 1860 
to 1870, 17.36; from 1870 to 1880, 19.69, and from 1880 to 
1890, 13.72 per cent. The increase of colored population 
from 1850 to 1860, was 40.73 per cent.; from 1860 to 1870, 
1.55; from 1870 to 1880, 46.40, and from 1880 to 1890, 
14.98. 



BAIiTIMORE A SOLID CITY. 



ADVANTAGES IT OFFERS FOR THE INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL 

AND LABOR. 



INCKEASE IN ALL LINES OF TRADE AND COMMERCE— RAILROAD AND 
SHIPPING FACILITIES FINE CLIMATE, CHEAP HOMES AND UN- 
EXCELLED MARKETS A MANUFACTURING BOOM. 

Baltimore's geograj^hical location is that of a great city. 
She is the nearest port of entrj^ to the interior, is the market 
for the best and cheapest steam coal in the country, and the 
natural shape of her harbor is such that the handling of 
freight in trans-shipment is reduced to the absolute minimum. 
In the early days of the republic, before the canal and railway 
had become the highways of trafhc, Baltimore was the point 
where the trade of the interior found its seaboard outlet, and 
the produce of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia rolled to its 
markets over the old turnpike roads. Her people were too 
enterprising not to perceive the necessity of providing im- 
proved facilities of transportation in order to stimulate the 
growth of the interior and expand the traffic of the port; and 
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal enterprise was the first project 



170 



for establishing a water route to the interior. The stupendous 
natural difficulties in the way of constructing a canal across 
the Appalachain chain prevented the accomplishment of the 
original plan, while, meanwhile, the Erie Canal, more fortu- 
nate in location j was built, raising New York from the position 
of the fifth State of the Uniort to the first, in point of wealth 
and population. It is an evidence of the indomitable energy 
and perseverance of the people of Maryland, that after fruitlessly 
expending millions upon the canal, they began the construction 
of the first railway in the world — the Baltimore and Ohio — 
begun in 1827, two years before the first English railway — the 
Liverpool and Manchester — was opened. The objective point 
was still the same, as the name of the ruad signifies — to reach 
the Ohio rivei-, and thus make an artificial connection between 
the great river system of the interior of the continent and the 
seaboard. Had the far-seeing promoters of the scheme been 
better able to command means, or had the natural difficulties 
in the way been less formidable, the development of the 
West would have been controlled in favor of Baltimore. 
The early railway lines projected in Ohio converged towards 
the East, in order to meet the Baltimore and Ohio Road 
pushing its way from the -East ; but while that road was 
struggling to cross the mountains, l^ew York- was pushing 
out railway lines, and having a natui'al route laid out for it 
by the valley of the Hudson, up to the shores of the chain of 
the great lakes, it was enabled to reach the West in the North 
in advance of the Baltimore and Ohio, although its route was 
the direct one. The local lines of railway that sprang up as 
feeders, of course, converged towards the North, and the 
movements of trade was established in these channels long 
before Baltimore could enter the field of competition. When 
the Baltimore and Ohio line to the West was completed, the 
effect upon the trade of the city was instantaneous, and steam- 
ship lines from the port to Europe were about to be estab- 
lished, when the war intervened, cutting off altogether the 
trade of the South,. and the principal comnmnieation of the 
city with the West, All plans for further extension towards 



171 



the South and West liad to be abandoned until after the war, 
when the original design of extending to the South and West, 
their shortest lines of communication with the Atlantic, was 
taken up again and prosecuted with an unwavering purpose, 
whose splendid results are elsewhere given with fullness of 
detail. The State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore 
have subscribed many millions of dollars in aid of these 
enterprises. To the Yalley Road alone, which, before many 
years, will become the great trunk route to the Southwest, the 
City of Baltimore has subscribed one million dollars. While 
the railway system of the city has thus been extended towards 
the South and West, piers, docks and elevators have been 
built up around the harbor, in immediate connection with 
all the railway lines, forming a system of terminal facilities 
superior in convenience and economy to that of any port in 
the world. At the same time, numerous lines of steam 
transportation by bay, ocean and river, have been established 
between Baltimore and Southern ports, so that by rail and 
water Baltimore is the nearest and most convenient port for 
the South and West. 

CLIMATE AND HEALTHFULNESS. 

Situated in a climate of medium temperature, and in gen- 
eral, free from extremes of heat and cold, with their attendant 
maladies, Baltimore is not perhaps surpassed by any city of the 
same population, for healthfulness, taking the average of years. 
Our brethern of more southern latitudes are enfeebled by con- 
tinued heats, and tliose of the JSTorth are visited by protracted 
seasons of cold, whilst, situated between the two, we have 
just enougli of either to counteract the ill effects of tlie other. 
To us, inflammatory diseases are comparatively of rare occur- 
rence, and maladies of a bilious type appear in a modified 
form. In point of vegetable production, Maryland has long 
been celebrated, not so much for amount as variety. The soil, 
although in many parts not so fertile as that of other sections 
of the country, is kind, and returns largely the rewards of 
good husbandry. In horticulture particularly is this found to 



172 



be the case, and it is beleived that no portion of the American 
continent can lx)ast so varied a supply of the more desirable 
descriptions of regetables. Many years since, owing to the 
political troubles in St. Domingo, a great number of French 
inhabitants were forced to fly for their lives, and in seeking a 
refuge fixed upon Baltimore as their place of future residence. 
These refugees were for the most part persons who had po- 
ssessed large fortunes, and had been educated in the best man- 
ner. Bringing with them a knowledge of the culture of num- 
erous vegetables indigenous to the West Indies, they also had 
the intelligence to adapt the treatment of them to any vari- 
ation of climate ; and thus did we become possessed of many 
articles of subsistence to which we had previously been in a 
great degree strangers. The tomato, egg plant, celery, salsafy 
and other vegetables were then introduced to our markets, and 
have continued ever since to add to the excellence of our 
tables, whilst the improved mode of cultivation tended to pro- 
mote an increase of other plants as well in quantity as in qual- 
ity. Kew York and Bosten may boast of the excellence of 
their markets, and Philadelphia of the fine quality of her 
butcher's meats, but to none of them will Baltimore yield in 
the excellence of variety of her horticultural products. From 
the causes above named, our city is always favored in point of 
vegetables, but within the last ten years, it is believed, is un- 
precedented within the recollection of our oldest inhabitants, 
for the richness of its vegetation. On entering one of our 
markets in the vegetable season, early in the morning, the 
scene that meets tiie eye is most gratifying. There are seen 
the glowing tints of the tomato, the full developement of the 
cauliflower, and the dark purple roundness of tke egg plant, 
while the commoner vegetables are strewed around in the rich- 
est profusion. Nor is this all ; the stalls are filled with excellent 
animal food of all descriptions, whilst the supplies of fine fish, 
soft and hard crabs, terrapins, ifcc, are unusally abundant. As if 
to crown the whole, the quality and quantity of fruits, such as 
peaches, pears, apples, watermelons, cantaleups, and the vari- 
ous kinds of berries in succession, have been most excellent. 



173 



and at such prices as to enable persons of the most moderate 
pecuniary means to command them. Are not these then just 
causes of gratitude to the great Giver of all good, who, with a 
beneficent hand, has emptied, as it were the horn of plenty 
into tlie lap of our community? With such mercies, does it 
not become us to feel thankful, and lift our hearts to the 
Being who, whilst others of his creatures are permitted to suf- 
fer from the gi-ipings of want, supplies our stores with plenty, 
and drives hunger far from our dwellings? 

The population of Baltimore, including the Belt, is about 
500,000, and is rapidly increasing. Yet rents are low com- 
pared with those of other cities, food is cheap and in great 
variety, and business is conducted under healthful conditions. 
Our domestic and foreign trades aggregate about $500,000,000, 
and our facilities for transportation b}^ water and rail are un- 
surpassed. The city's connection with the South gives it excep- 
tional advantages for handling the products of that section, 
and its position at tlie head of the Chesapeake makes it the 
natural shipping point for the traffic of the great AYest. As a 
distributive market Baltimore has attained eminence by reason 
of the enterprise of its merchants, and its excellent raib'oad 
communications. Its dry goods, clothing, copper, cotton duck, 
millinery, straw goods, shirts, drawers and overalls, curled hair, 
bristles, slioes, lumber, hardware, canned goods, leather, gro. 
ceries, tobacco, machinery, sugars, coffee, fertilizers, furniture 
and pianos, go to all parts of the Union. Our manufactured 
products, which amount to about $200,000,000 in value, are 
increasing yearly in volume and variety. Our taxes, withal, 
are not excessive, and the exemption enjoyed by manufactur- 
ing plant lessens, appreciably, the burden borne by our indus- 
tries. Six railroads centre here, two of which have admirable 
terminal facilitie? for the handling of grain and other freight 
destined for export. Our facilities for receivins: and carina 
for immigrants has already made this port a serious competitor 
of New York for this branch of business. Our shipping in 
terests are accordingly flourishing, and we have about twentv- 
five trans-Atlantic lines that connect us with European ports. 



174 



We lack still the ships required to give us our proper share in 
the South Atlantic coast trade, but the enterprise of our mer- 
chants will perhaps give us these in time. Not the least of 
our industries, it may be added, is the shipbuilding industry, 
which prospers on account of the low cost of building here. 

A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE. 

CLIMATE OF BALTIMOKE AND ITS SOCIAL AND INTELLECTUAL 
ADVAN^rAGES. 

As a place of residence Baltimore is equaled by but few 
cities in this country and surpassed by none. Lying midway 
between the north and South, its climate has all the advan- 
tages of New York or Massachusetts, of Georgia or Missis- 
sippi, without sharing in the extremes of temperature to which 
those sections are subject. In winter and in summer the 
weather is tempered by the convenient proximity of the Atlan- 
tic Ocean, and the city is protected by a long stretch of country 
and by two ranges of mountains, from the disastrous effects of 
cyclones or blizzards, which periodically visit the Northwest 
and middle West. Temperature has as much to do with the 
growth of a city as any other one cause. The normal man 
will seek, as a rule, the climate best suited to the best enjoy- 
ment of health, and of all mental and physical faculties. The 
first English comers to this country settled by chance in a sec- 
tion having a climate similar to that of Maryland, and succes- 
sive immigrants have by natural selection followed that exam- 
ple. This was the cause of the greater part of the population 
of the colonies lying towards Maryland and Virginia, and why 
these sections became the great storehouse for New England. 
The moderately temperate climate is best adapted to people of 
English descent, and the general tendency of the man Ameri- 
can born is to drift gradually towards the South, and away 
from regions of fogs, mists, snow blockades, and temperatures 
below zero. 

The average temperature of Baltimore during the past ten 
years has been 55.7 degrees, the lowest mean temperature in 



175 



that time having been 53.5 in 18S6, and the highest mean 57.1 
in 1881. The mean temperature in 1886, was 54.0. In 1870, 
the aggregate population of the United States was to be found 
in sections where tlie mean annual temperature was from 50 to 
55 degrees, and this was the exact case in 1880, after ten years, 
during which 2,944,695 immigrants had reached this country 
and had settled largely in States lying north of the latitude of 
Baltimore, especially in the Northwest, which in itself, with- 
out counteracting forces, would have exerted some influence in 
directing the centre of population towards a lower tempera- 
ture. But such was not the case, for other foreigners and 
natives had followed the natural trend of the country between 
the Atlantic ocean and the Appalachian sj^stem of mountains 
and have found their way westward through the gaps in the 
mountains which are situated within one hundred miles north 
or south of the latitude of Baltimore, and through one of 
which the Baltimore and Ohio, supplanting the old National 
turnpike in 1853, was the first railroad to reach the Ohio river. 
In 1790, the centre of population was twenty three miles east 
of Baltimore, which is in north latitude 39 degrees 17 minutes. 
That was the most northern point recorded which the centre 
reached, and it is a fact worthy of note that while the centre 
has in the last century moved nearly five hundred miles west- 
ward, its extreme variation in latitude has not been over 
twenty-five miles, but it has followed the thirty-ninth parallel 
of latitude with a general southern tendency, which, no doubt 
will increase as settlers in the Northwest, finding the climate 
uncongenial, will move towards the south. These facts not 
only prove the natural advantages of Baltimore as a place for 
residence, but also demonstrate that, by its location and its I'ailroad 
connections, it must control the trade of the great south and 
southwest, which will continue to increase year by year. 

The fourth annual report of the United States Commis- 
sioner of Labor is devoted to facts and statistics concernino- 
working women in large cities. In reference to Baltimore the 
report says : 

'•The home condition of Baltimore's working women is 
above the average. Kents are cheap, separate^houses the rule 



176 



sanitary arrangements good, and tenement-houses rare, as com" 
pared with other cities ; markets are excellent and the cost of 
living low." 

In proportion to its popnlation, Baltimore possesses as many 
aids for working girls as any city in the United States. Allu- 
sion is made at some length to the work of the Young 
"Women's Christian Association, and also to various Protestant 
and Catholic institutions designed to facilitate the providing of 
homes and home comforts and attractions for working women. 
A table o-iving the average weekly earnings of working women 
in some twenty cities places the figures for Baltimore at $4.18. 
Only two other cities have lower figures than Baltimore — At- 
lanta $4.05, and Kichmond $3.93. 

With such climatic advantages, which are shown moreover 
in the fact that the death rate in Baltimore in 1891 was lower 
than anv other city in the world, and with the best markets in 
the world to satisfy man's physical wants, Baltimore possesses 
other characteristics conducive to his comfort. Situated in a 
gently rolling country, rising towards the west, the city has 
every opportunity of extending itself in all directions except 
where it is confined by the river. Already large towns have 
spruno- up within two or three miles of the present limits, and 
they, with a thickly-settled country, will eventually be added 
to the citv, and there will be room for further development. 
Building materials are at hand and house rents are low — ex- 
tremely low when compared with those of other metropolitan 
cities. The stranger coming here will find organizations of 
merchants, business men or private individuals awake to their 
city's interest, conservative in their methods, conducting their 
affairs on a safe basis, and prepared to welcome gladly any one 
who is disposed to unite with them for mutual, individual and 
o-eneral good, and in his undertakings he will have the protec- 
tion of one of the best city governments in the world. 

Within 45 minutes' ride of AVashington, at present the 
political, and destined to be in the future the social and in- 
tellectual centre of the country, Baltimoreans have at their 
own doors all that constitutes culture and pleasure. The 



177 



Johns Hopkins University, tliougli young in years, but old in 
appropriated experience and in the woi'k it has done for 
science and literature, has a personnel of students and pro- 
fessors cosmopolitan in character, which has earned the atten- 
tion it has attracted and the praise it has received. A law 
school, medical, pharmaceutical and dental colleges attract 
students from all over the country, and a well regulated system 
of public primary, grammar and high schools, numerous 
private and parochial schools of a high standard provide a 
liberal education for all classes in the community. In 1880, 
the public school houses in Baltimore numbered 59, with an 
attendance of 35,297 children. In 1890, they numbered 81, 
with an aggregate attendance of 63,545. The total white 
pupils were 54,21:7; male, 27,117; female, 27,130. The total 
colored pupils were 9,298 ; male, 4,231 female, 5,064. The 
aggregate number of teachers in Baltimore were 1,187 ; total 
white, 1,171; male. 111 ; female, 1,060. Colored teachers, 16; 
male, 3 ; female, 13. The Pratt Free Library, with its four 
brandies, the Peabody, Mercantile, Maryland Historical So- 
ciety, Johns Hopkins University, bar and special libraries, 
meet the demands of the public for literary culture, while 
theatres, social organizations, and the intercourse of private 
life, which possess pleasant features peculiar to Baltimore, help 
to make life easy. And a Young Men's Christian Association, 
with a large membership and with a flourishing railroad 
branch, churclies of every denomination and several philan- 
thropic societies, meet the needs of persons of more quiet 
tastes. The city, with all these attractions, will have a steady 
growth, and those who would enjoy to the full its advantages 
will be those who grow up with it. 

A RELIGIOUS CENTRE. 

Baltimore since its foundation has been a great religious 
centre. !No city in the country has played so prominent a part 
in church history. Denominations have originated here, and 
expanded little by little, until they have attained their present 
splendid proportions. The people of Baltimore have always 

12 



178 



been strongly devoted to religious work, and their worship has 
been marked by that earnestness and independence wliich are , 
so powerful in bringing about great results. If we trace the 
beginning, development and present proportions of the 
churches, we cannot help marvel at the showing. In the Catholic 
Church of America, Baltimore has been and is now without 
doubt the principal see, as it was the first in this country. As 
early as 1786, Rev. John Carroll, of Baltimore, was appointed 
the first vicar-general of the Catholic Church in America. 
Four years afterwards he was consecrated the first bishop, and 
in 1808, he became the first archbishop. Ten provincial coun- 
cils have been hold in the Cathedral here and two plenary 
councils, the second one, in 1866, being tlie grandest on record. 
The third council, hel(i in 1890, was one of the greatest events 
iin the Catliolic Church. The Cathedral hei-e was the first 
cathedral erected in America, Then, there have been other 
events of importance to the Catholic Church. The first order 
of Redemptorists in the United States was established here in 
1850, and the first Catholic seminary for theological students 
was founded here sixty years earlier. Of the Protestant Epis- 
copals, wliose history is largely the history of Maryland and 
her public men, it is needless to speak. Baltimore is the Mecca 
of American Methodism. It was in 1784, that the scattered 
forces of the church gathered here and accomplished the for- 
mation of the church in America, with Rev. Thomas Asbury 
as its first bishop ; and it was from this city that its religious 
efforts radiated. After awhile there were troubles among the 
members, and the result was the withdrawal of the discon- 
tented and the organization by tliem in Baltimore in 1828, of 
the Methodist Protestant Church. A further division occurred 
in 1862, when, in the same city, the Independent Methodist 
denomination was first founded. The growth of all these 
churches is phenomenal, and it is almost impossible to compare 
the handful of Methodists of a century ago with 2,000,000 
members to-day, or the little band of Methodist Protestants of 
a half century ago with the 200,000 to-day. The seed were 
sowed in Baltimore, and have yielded many hundred fold. 



179 



Then there were other churches which began here. In 
1774, Rev. William Otterbein organized the denomination of 
the United Brethren in Christ — a denomination which now 
has 49 annual conferences and about 160,000 members. In 
April, 1792, Rev. Mr. Wilmer preached the doctrines of the 
New Jerusalem Church for the first time. Seven years later 
Rev. John Hargrove founded the first Swedenborgian Church, 
and there have been other things of more or less importance 
which have transpired in this city. Among them was the 
establishment of the first Sunday schools by the Methodists in 
17S8, and the formation of the first temperance society in 1840. 

These are only tlie most important of the many great events 
that have taken place in Baltimore. No reference has been 
made to the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and other denomina- 
tions, because very few of their general historical epochs 
belong to Baltimore; but the instances given show how leading 
a part the Monumental City has played in the origin and de- 
velopment of large churches. 

BALTIMORE MARKETS. 

CITIZENS HAVE CHEAP HOMES AND SUBSTANTIAL SUPPLIES 
OF LUXURIES. 

The quality and quantity of the great variety of food dis- 
played in the Baltimore markets, and the moderate prices 
charged for the very best articles, never fail to strike a stranger 
with wonder and admiration. Foreigners especially are im- 
pressed with the goodness and cheapness of the Baltimore 
markets. Englishmen are struck with the profusion of fruits 
in rich variety, though they seem to exj^ect Maryland to 
show, in accord with her reputation abroad, the finest peaches 
in the world. Those who in proper season see the steam 
boats bringing in the crops of peaches, the fleets of pungies 
bearing the luscious matermelons and cantaleups of Anne 
Arundel to Baltimore, and the uncommon tide of strawberries 
and other small fruits, are convinced that they are in the 
land of greatest plenty. The impression at another season, 



180 



when the millions of bushels of oysters are arriving, and the 
vast quantities of fish and game are coming in, is not less 
marked. The canning honses at these two seasons, with their 
uninterrupted clatter and bustle, tell the stranger of the pro- 
lificness of this country. Prices, as a rule, are proportioned 
to the supply, but always much below the cost of similar 
articles elsewhere. It is for this last reason that the canning 
factories are located here, and that Baltimore's canning in- 
terests are so great. The goods are largely canned for those 
sections where oysters, crabs, peaches, strawberries and such 
Baltimore luxuries are unknown in their natural state, and 
must ever be obtained from Baltimore because of her special 
advantages. The cheapness of house rents in Baltimore, when 
compared with other cities, is remarkable. This holds good 
with houses of all grades in all parts of the city. The most 
expensive houses in Baltimore rent for about one-half the 
prices charged in neighboring cities. Rows of neat and com- 
fortable dwellings of six rooms, with hot and cold water, on 
nice streets, may be rented at $10 per month. Houses on 
good wide streets, in good localities, with back alleys for 
ingress and egress of rough articles, fuel, ifec, with good 
yards and modern conveniences, may be had for $12 per 
month. Fine dwellings, with baths and every convenience, 
thirteen rooms, 19| feet front and lots 136 feet deep, may 
be had for $18 per month. Some houses of grand propor- 
tions, with yard in rear and front, and everything in propor- 
tion, rent as low as $40 per month. The leader of a New 
York orchestra moved to Baltimore with his family. In 
New York he had lived in a flat, for which he paid $60 per 
month. In Baltimore he rented a large house for $30 per 
month — so large that his wife found it difficult to keep it 
warm, even by consuming large quantities of coal. She 
complained of the house being too large, and was staggered 
when told the price. Later he rented all the house he wanted, 
with full conveniences, for $18 per month. Most of those 
who live in tenement-houses in Baltimore are Poles, and they 
have the line old residences in the southeastern parts of the 



181 



city, on Thames, Fell and other old streets, which at one time 
formed the aristocratic heart of Baltimore. The Russian 
Hebrews find Baltimore an inexpensive home. Thej have a 
colony on Pratt street, from Central avenue to Jones' Falls, 
and on the adjacent cross streets. They have numerous stores, 
where peddlers get their outfits before traveling through the 
country. The Bohemian colonies in nortiieast Baltimore, an 
industrious and frugal class, can testify to economy of living 
here. These Poles and Bohemians have three large Catholic 
churches. On moderate incomes they live well, and are 
making good progress in life. The wealthy, in addition to 
many other advantages, enjoy in Baltimore more for their 
money, from all sources, from places of amusement down to 
their livery-stable, than in any other city. 

THE STUDY OF A MAP. 

Baltimore's relation to the country shown to the best 

advantage. 

At first glance, a map of the United States, or a portion of 
it, is not particularly interesting. But when are studied the 
direction in which the rivers run, the trend of the mountain 
ranges, the parallel, intersecting or diverging lines of railroads, 
and the mighty influence these agencies have exerted on the 
settlement of the country, and the migration of the people 
southward or westward, a map furnishes most entertaining 
food for thought. Take, for instance, any good railroad map, 
which for convenience, only embraces the portion of the 
United States, south of the great lakes and east of the Missis- 
sippi. It will show clearly, Bdtimore's existing relations with 
those portions of the country which by nature should find an 
outlet to the rest of the world through this city, demonstrate 
what has been done to supplement nature with the agencies 
born of modern inventions, and at the same time call the atten- 
tion of the wide-awake enterprising merchants and capitalists 
of the city, and of those at a distance, to the rich harvest 
awaiting them, would they only put forth thsir hands and 
gather it. 



1S2 



Baltimore, by its situation, by its natural harbor facilities, 
and by its excellent railroad connections, should be the great 
entrepot of tlie United States, and its advantages already pos- 
sessed will be increased to a great degree when the great ship 
canal piercing the peninsula sliall shorten the distance to Euro- 
pean ports by three or four hundred miles. The well-earned 
reputation of the city for building fast-sailing vessels, though 
fallen into abeyance for some years, is rapidly being regained, 
and the present generation will see, no doubt, in all quarters of 
the globe, worthy successors to the old clippers that half a cen- 
tury ago proclaimed Baltimore's fame to the world, and were 
important factors in the development of this country. Trade 
with South America, which must increase with years, can be 
easily cultivated, and increased power in the distribution of 
native products among European nations, which are looking to 
America as their great storehouse, can readily be acqiiired. 

Baltimore stands with its face to the south, and with one 
hand prepared to gather the .products of nearly half of the 
Um"ted States and to send them forward to other nations, and 
in return with the left hand to bestow the peculiar products of 
the soil of Maryland and her sister States upon those States 
whose climate will not allow the growth of such luxuries. 
One iron finger runs almost due north through the rich 
farming lands of central Pennsylvania and southwestern New 
York until it touches the great lakes with their ships loaded 
with grain. Another stretches out to manfacturing Pittsburg, 
328 miles distant, the coal, iron and other mineral lands of 
southwestern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia 
and Ohio, and away out to Chicago, 830 miles, the central 
point for the grain, hay and other farm products of the great 
Northwest and the flour of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 1,296 
miles from the seaboard. The third finger beckons to t^e 
stock-raisers of Kentucky and Tennessee, the active men of 
St. Louis, 931 miles to the west, and of Kansas City, 1,213 
miles*away, and bids them to turn towards Baltimore the 
rapidly-increasing shipments of cattle and cereals from the 
empire of the Southwest. 



183 



The index finger very appropriately follows the lines of the 
Appalachian system of mountains, which, ranging from the 
southwest to the northeast, give an outlet to Baltimore by 
the natural rift at Harper's Ferry, whose immense water-power, 
gradually being utilized, must bear tribute to this city. Down 
through the beautiful, fertile and well-watered Shenandoah 
Yalley of Virginia the finger points, gathering in the profits 
from the farm lands of the valley proper, the wood and 
minerals of the mountain slopes, the coal and iron of the 
southwestern Virginia and southern West Virginia hills and 
the cattle of their plains, piercing the pine and hardwood 
regions of western North Carolina and South Carolina, east 
Kentucky and Tennessee, and finally touching the flourishing 
manufacturing an(i industrial centres of the new South, 
Birmingham, Anniston, Ensley and other towns and cities of 
Alabama, which have grow^n rapidly with the development of 
their natural resources. The broad thumb covers a fertile 
section embracing Richmond, Norfolk, Atlanta, Savannah and 
Charleston, and some of the finest trucking country on the 
Atlantic slope, extending from Norfolk to Florida with its 
orange groves 

Baltimore is determined to let its right liand know what its 
left hand doeth. One finger of the left hand points to the 
outside world, and the rest of the hand is busy gathering the 
peaches of the Eastern Shore, western and southern Maryland, 
the oysters, water-fowl and terrapin of the Chesapeake and 
the small fruits of many sections of the State, and in dis- 
tributing them either fresh or canned, by expresses of fast 
freights to parts of the country where they are luxuries. 
Facilities for gatliering these harvests are good, and the 
completion of the new railroad bisecting the Eastern Shore, 
the road passing through the bay counties of the Western 
Shore, and the road but lately talked of to run through the 
rich counties of Howard and Montgomery, and later, perhaps, 
on through tlie grazing lands of West Virginia, the production 
of Maryland's specialties will be increased with the accommo- 
dations for transporting them to a steady market. 



181 



The "West and the Soutli are growing, and Baltimore has 
the opportunity of controlling the trade between the two sec- 
tions and of the two sections with the world. The last twenty- 
years have been marked by rapid strides in the Sontli, due to 
native enterprise and resources, capital from other sections, and 
improved methods of communication. In many States the 
plantation system has gradually yielded to intensive farming; 
and while the cultivation of the staples, cotton, tobacco and 
grain, has progressed, many large holdings have been divided 
into small farms devoted to the raising of small fruits, vege- 
tables, grazing of cattle and trucking. It is not necessary to 
go into details about the coal and iron fields of the different 
States; the great varieties of woods, with their products of 
bark for tanning, rosin, pitch and turpentine, the cotton-seed 
industry, the cultivation of rice, sugar-cane, broom-corn and 
jute ; the bee culture and silk culture, with all the milling and 
other manufacturing interests connected with them. Rail- 
roads are penetrating all parts, having nearly doubled their 
mileage in less than ten years, and this vast web of iron, Balti- 
more controls with its fingers, the railroads. 

TERMINAL FACILITIES. 

RAILROADS LINK THE CITY WITH ALL OTHER IMPORTANT CITIES 
or THE COUNTRY. 

The I'ailroad facilities of Baltimore are sufficient for all 
business purposes. There are running into the city five sepa- 
rate broad-gauge railroads and one narrow-gauge road. The 
Baltimore and Ohio reaches in, one direction to Philadelphia, 
and by its connections to New York, and, on the other hand, 
enters the great West, Southwest and Northwest. The terri- 
tory it covers is a most productive one, and includes the 
States of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois and Pennsylvania, with direct lines to and through 
such large cities as Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington, 
Pittsburg, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, 
and by connections with others of almost as great importance. 
Its depot is easy of access and commodious, and the facilities 



185 



at Locust Point nneqnaled by those of any other road in any 
other city. At this place there are accommodations by which 
freight can be transferred from ocean steamers direct to cars 
for shipment to other points, and vice versa. The three eleva- 
tors at the point have accommodations for 3,800,000 bushels of 
grain. Besides this, the Baltimore and Ohio has a smaller 
elevator at its Camden Station for 400,000 bushels, making a 
total capacity of 4,200,000 bushels. 

Next in importance comes the Northern Central, the main 
connectino; line between Baltimore and the Pennsvlvania Rail- 
road system, as well as a direct road to the northern boundary 
between the United States and Canada. Associated \vith the 
Northern Central are two other branches of the Pennsylvania 
system, the Baltimore and Potomac to Washington, ai^ the 
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore to Philadelphia and 
the North and East. Over the Pennsylvania system, every 
part of the country, from the East to the West and from the 
North to the South, can be reached. The company has two 
elevators on the Canton side of the river. They have a 
capacity of 1,250,000 bushels of grain. The company has also 
on that side of the river extensive wharf property and great 
facilities for handling and shipping ocean freight, and numer- 
ous freight sheds to the centre of tlie city. The Western 
Maryland Railroad is essentially a Baltimore institution, having 
been nurtured by the city almost since infancy. It runs 
through Baltimore, Carroll, Prederick and Washington coun- 
ties and covers a section rich in production. The road touches 
most of the large places in the section through which it passes, 
notably Westminster, Frederick, Hagerstown, Williamsport, 
etc., and has connections with the Shenandoah Valley 
and Reading and North Western, and Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroads, and further on with the East Tennessee, Yir- 
ginia and Georgia Railroad, making a direct line from 
Baltimore to Memphis, Tenn., through a rich and growing 
country. The Maryland Central is the narrow-gauge rail- 
road, built originally for tiie local traffic between Baltimore 
and Harford counties and the lower portions of Pennsylvania, 
but which with good management may some day develop into 



186 



greater things. At present it fills a long- felt want for quick 
communication between Baltimore and the territory it covers. 
Taken altogether, Baltimore has terminal facilities eqiial to 
those of any large city on the seaboard, and railroads stretch- 
ing direct or by connection to all quarters of the State and of 
the country', and several others contemplated or in course of 
construction. The terminal charges are light, and with differ- 
entials in favor of Baltimore this city should prove a most in- 
viting field for manufacturers and merchants. A feature of 
the many railroads leading out of Baltimore is the incentive 
they give for suburban residences. All of them pass through 
a delightful country adjacent to the city, which is rapidly 
being settled by those who have the means to enjoy the 
pleasures of the country and the benefits of city life. 

The Pope's Creek Branch of the Baltimore and Potomac 
Railroad extends down through Prince George's and Charles 
counties. It has also a connecting line, the Southern Mary- 
land, running into St. Mary's county. Among the proposed 
railroads may be mentioned the Drum Point, running into Cal- 
vert county and through intermediate territory, the Baltimore 
and Cumberland Railroad, and Ellicott City extension of the 
Catonsville Short Line, the Belt Railroad connecting the Balti" 
more and Ohio at Camden Station in Baltimore, with the 
Maryland Central at the city boundary, and thence on to 
Philadelphia and New York, and the "Western Maryland Rail- 
road extension through the heart of the city by an elevated 
road over Jones' Falls to the old President-street depot, and 
thence on to tide-water and Steelton, and the extension of the 
"West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad from Cumber- 
land to Baltimore. 

The street railway lines of the city form a complete network 
of available routes, carrying passengers to every quarter at a 
cheap rate, and show a large increase of mileage over 1880, in 
which year the number of passengers, as indicated by returns 
to the city treasury, were 19,000,000, while in 1890 it has in- 
creased to 36,000,000. In 1880 the length of line of street 
railways operated was 61.97 miles; in 1890 this had increased 



187 

to 105.81, or an increase of 43.84 miles or 70.74 per cent. In 
1890 all the city railways were operated by animal power, but 
now (1892) one of the chief lines is run by cable, and all the 
other principal lines are being cabled. Some are also being 
run by electricity, and other lines are making preparations to 
operate by the same motive power. 

THE HARBOR OF BALTIMORE. 

The harbor of Baltimore has about twelve miles of water 
front measured on the Port Warden's line, and, of course, has 
a vastly greater length of accommodation for shipping if the 
extension of wharves is taken into consideration. Situated 
nearly 180 miles inland from the coast, with which it is con- 
nected by the deep and capacious Chesapeake Bay, it must 
always command a share of ocean traffic so long as water car- 
riage is less costly than transportation by land, and so long as 
the channels between our wharves and the deep water of the 
bay are maintained of sufficient depth and width. From the 
earliest periods of its history, the people of Baltimore have 
manifested a thorough appreciation of the improvement of the 
harbor and the approaches thereto from the Chesapeake Bay. 
As early as 1830, a dredging machine costing $70,000 was used 
in removing sediment from the harbor, probably, one of the 
first used in this country. The application of steam power to 
dredging macliines having been introduced, the city and State, 
together with the national government, procured in 1852, several 
machines which were used in the improvement of the river 
and the harbor, which work has been almost;^ continually kept 
up from that day to this, as the changes in the size and style 
of vessels have required corresponding changes in the width 
and depth of the harbor and channels. 

The Patapsco river had originally, between its mouth and 
Fort Carroll, a depth of about seventeen or eighteen feet at 
mean low water, which, for many years, was sufficient for the 
needs of our commerce, when a vessel of 800 tons burden was 
considered a large ship, and the commerce of the world was 
carried in sailing vessels. The last quarter of a century has, 



188 



however, revolutionized the ocean carrying trade, and, except 
for some exceedingly long voyages where coaling stations are 
not to be found, the sailing freight carrier may be called a 
thing of the past. Moreover, the capital invested in this 
branch of industry has increased, and with it the inevitable 
competition and reduction of rates of freight, the size and 
draft of steamships have progressively increased, as it was soon 
found that the larger vessels could be operated at nearly the 
cost of the smaller ones, so that to day vessels ©f from 3,000 to 
4,000 tons form the bulk of ocean carriers. When, in 1852, it 
was found that even with vessels then in use, the natural depth 
in the river was insufficient, and vessels were compelled to 
have a portion of their cargoes transferred to lighters at Swann 
Point (distant seventeen miles) before they could come up to 
the city, it was decided to open a channel 21 feet in depth and 
150 feet wide, which, at that time, was considered sufficient. 
This improvement, however, was not entirely completed until 
1868. In 1872 it was found that to preserve our commerce, a 
channel 24 feet deep and 250 feet wide was needed, and in 
1881 it was found necessary to increase the depth to 27 feet at 
mean low water, and to increase the width to 400 feet, and 
now the chanViels are beings widened to 600 feet. It will 
doubtless not be long before a depth of 31 feet will be re- 
quired. With all the improvements made by the national 
government in the ship channels, the city has kept pace with 
them, so that we have now in our lower harbor 27 feet depth 
at low water, 24 feet in the middle section, and from 17 to 19 
feet in the upper part or basin. 

THE INNER AND OUTER HARBOR. 

Baltimore has a superb inner and outer harbor, extending 
from Light street wharf to Fort Carroll, its eastern and west- 
ern terminus. Its grand advantage over New York and other 
harbors is the almost entire absence of roughness, and the per- 
fect shelter and safety from storms Shut in from the some- 
times turbulent Chesapeake, its surface is almost as calm and 
emooth as the placid bosom of an inland lake. Scarcely a 



189 



ripple breaks its evenness greater than the vessel's swell, or the 
splash of the seagull as it laves its wing in the briny bath. Its 
depth is so great, that the largest vessels can run alongside the 
wharves and piers, almost into the very heart of the city, and 
load and unload their cargoes. 

Occupying, as she does, a middle position, Baltimore shares 
most of the advantages of her sister cities to the north and 
south, while exempt from some of their heaviest drawbacks. 
Her harbor, as a rule, is open all the year, Avhile she is free 
from those visitations which sometimes beset our Southern 
neighbors. Her location has marked Baltimore as a great 
commercial port, standing at the head of one of the most 
magnificent bays in the world, whose fertile and populous 
shores are tributary to her markets, with a land-locked harbor 
where the fleets of the world may ride safely at anchor, and a 
water-front of almost unlimited extent. At her wharves and 
piers may be seen the flags of all nations ; her ocean steamships 
go and come from all the leading foreign and domestic ports. 
Two of the leading transcontinental trunk lines have here their 
eastern terminus, in themselves embracing 6,000 miles of road, 
and over their tracks pass freight cars belonging to every other 
rail Hue in North America, tlius bringing Baltimore into close 
connection with every part of the United States and the 
Canadas. 

BALTIMORE AND OHIO EAILKOAD TERMINUS. 

Not far inside the Lazaretto are two of the most important 
parts of Baltimore — Locust Point on the south side of the 
harbor, and Canton on the north side. Both are directly 
within the main harbor, and- accessible to the street car lines. 
Locust Point is known chiefly for the magnificent elevators 
and marine terminals of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 
Company. The water view is an imposing one. The com- 
pany's property has a frontage of fully a thousand feet, and is 
covered with structures of vast dimensious. To the right are 
the piers, fitted up for immigrant trafiic, with all the facilities 
for transferring from steamship to train. Baltimore has very- 
great advantages, for handling immigrants, over other cities on 
I he coast. 



190 



BALTIMORE S IMMIGRATION FACILITIES. 

The steamers sail close up to the wharf, and the trains which 
are to carry the emigrants West, back in upon the pier so that 
they can almost step from vessel to train. At other places 
transfers are made from steamers to lighters, and it not in- 
frequently happens that families are separated. The baggage 
is placed on other lighters, reaching the receiving jDoint in 
great bulk, and endless worry and apprehension follow. The 
foreigner, in a strange land where his language is spoken by 
only a few, and where everything is so new to him, is at best 
to be commiserated. He feels an indescribable loneliness, the 
memories of his native land tug at his heart strings, and he is 
in constant fear of losing his family or baggage, if not himself, 
at ports where several ships are discharging at once, and where 
it is impossible to prevent these strangers from becoming 
almost helplessly confused. The strain upon them is very 
severe, and by the time the emigrant is on the cars bound for 
the "West, he is in such a condition that it is not surprising if he 
falls an easy victim to sharps and swindlers, who are always 
lying in M^it for him. At Baltimore there can be no such de- 
plorable results, for not only are the immigrants landed directly 
from the ship upon the wharf, but they are ticketed on the 
spot, placed on board the trains, and the Baltimore and Ohio 
interpreters sent with them to the terminus of the road. All 
baggage is claimed and rechecked as it is unloaded from the 
ship, foreign money is exchanged by an official without charge, 
and proper food is furnished at a moderate price. Everything 
is under the personal supervision of the general foreign agent 
of the company, who delivers all money and letters, cashes 
orders and furnishes all information desired. Speaking 
foreign languages fluently, and having at his command an ex- 
perienced corps of interpreters, the immigrant upon landing 
at Locust Point is among those with whom he can converse 
and feel at home. More than all this, he reaches this country 
at a point two hundred miles nearer his destination in the 
West, and con equently at a lower railroad fare. He not only 
has the opportunity of crossing the ocean with his relatives 



191 



^nd friends, but has them with him on the train to liis destina- 
tion. But one shijD at a time is allowed to anchor at the re- 
■ceiving piers, and, as a rule, the immigrants leave for the West 
within six hours after they have arrived. The number of pas- 
sengers arriving at Locust Point weekly aggregates sometimes 
from three thousand to five thousand. They are largely Ger- 
mans, Swedes and Scandinavians, and there are very few 
among them who have not enough money to meet all present 
emergencies. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA KAILROAd's GREAT BUSINESS. 

At Canton, on the east side of tlie Northwest Branch, and 
immediately opposite to the historic Fort McIIenry, which 
gave birth to the national song, " The Star Spangled Banner," 
are located the railroad yards, grain elevators, freight ware- 
houses, coal and steamship piers and docks, and other terminal 
plant of the Northern Central Railway, by means of which is 
handled the enormous grain, tlour, cattle and other export and 
import business of the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
system in Baltimore. 

The most conspicuous structures in this plant are, of course 
the two grain elevators, whose combined storage capacity is 
one and a-half millions of bushels. Next in order, and adjacent 
to Elevator No. 1, come the three covered merchandise piers 
with deep intervening docks. The first pier, known as No. 2 
is 500 feet long and 70 feet wide. Pier No. 3 is 800 feet 
long and 120 feet wide, and pier No. 4 is 800 feet long and 
110 feet wide. Two lines of railway tracks run through the 
center of these piers, leaving broad platforms at either side 
and the docks being dredged to a depth of thirty feet at mean 
tide, the largest class of steamships are readily loaded and 
unloaded. 

In addition to this, are two open piers for the landing of 
lumber, ties and other heavy articles, and a large structure 
known as the Iron Ore Pier, at which four steamships can dis- 
charge simultaneously, and working all three hatches without 
the slightest interference. 



192 



The largest part of the Mediterranean and other foreign 
ore brought here in the last few years for shipment to the 
furnaces of Pennsylvania has been handled at this point. 

For the handling of this terminal business, and in view of 
the immense quantity of corn to be shipped abroad by the 
enterprising grain exporters this season, the company had 
provided railway track facilities at this point for the storage of 
nearly two thousand cars. 

Adjoining it on the south begins the property of the Balti- 
more Storage and Lighterage Company, and the Baker, 
Whiteley Coal Company, on which are built a covered mer- 
chandise pier 500 feet long and 10 feet wide, and two bitu- 
minous coal piers, one of which recently finished, 800 feet 
long, 50 feet wide and 40 feet in height, is considered the 
largest and most complete structure of the kind on the Eastern 
seaboard. At Boston street, a few squares to the north, are 
situated the anthracite coal piers and stocking trestles, and when 
it is borne in mind that the building of all these improvements, 
representing millions of dollars, giving employment to so many 
people, and contributing so largely to the extension of the 
commerce of the city, has been done since 1875 ; it is very 
evident that the Pennsylvania Railroad, in the giant strides it 
has been making in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, 
has neither been unmindful of the splendid advantages of this 
port, nor of the enterj^rise and commercial spirit of its 
merchants. 

STEAMSHIP LINES. 

The two principal passenger steamship lines between Balti- 
more and foreign ports, are the North-German Lloyd and the 
Allan Line. The first is a weekly line, but often during the 
busy season has two, three, and sometimes four steamships a 
week coming in. The ships of this line are magnificent iron 
steamers, and there can be no more convincing testimony to 
their seaworthiness than that there has never been the loss of a 
vessel, nor an accident of consequence since the line was 
started. The character of the management is such as to insure 
the kindest and best treatment, and the cleanest and most 



193 



satisfactory accommodations. The Allan is a bi-monthly of 
first-class equipment, and in the busy season its ships come and 
go with more frequency than the regular schedule specifies. 
To the left of the emigrant piers is the large slip in which the 
B. and O. transfer steamer Canton makes her landing. This is the 
largesttransfer vessel ever built, and transfers the heaviest trains 
without crowding, having three tracks her entire length. Flank- 
ing the slip on either side are the enormous B. and O. grain eleva- 
tors, one alone of which has an actual capacity for the storage 
of 1,800,000 bushels of grain, and a working capacity of 
1,400,000 bushels. It has twelve receiving elevators for un- 
loading cars, and twenty shipping elevators with power to 
unload five hundred cars in ten hours, and deliver 100,000 an 
hour to vessels. Double all these figures and it gives a fair 
conception of the facilities of these three elevators. Back of 
the elevators are tobacco warehouses, massive structures of 
stone and brick. Almost numberless tracks reach from Locust 
Point to the main line, from which radiate other tracks, lead- 
ing all over the city. 

The Fell Street Station is largely devoted to the oyster 
traffic, which yields an immense revenue to the company, and 
trains are run daily through to the West on express time, 
loaded with oysters. To a stranger the vast extent of this 
business in figures would be almost incredible. The Central 
Station is for heavy freight, and is of inestimable convenience 
to the manufacturing interest. East of the elevators are the 
Columbian Iron Works and Dry Dock, one of the most 
extensive and complete plants of its kind in the United States. 
Here are under construction two of the cruisers of the new 
navy, ^os. 9 and 10, one of which, No. 10, has already been 
launched, and the other is on the ways, and will soon be ready 
to follow her twin sister. Busy artisans, with skilled hand 
and eye, are rapidly fashioning them for their mission, and 
day and night their vast steel hulls ring over the water with 
the cheerful music of anvil and hammer, preparing their 
mighty garb of steel in which they are to make their debut. 

At Union Dock are the splendidly equipped steamers of the 
Merchants and Manufacturers' Transportation Company, the 
13 



194 



Boston Line, and near tlieni those of the Bay Line. The inner 
part of the north draw is called the Back Basin, and is a great 
lumber center. From the foot of South street, covering Pratt- 
street wharf from Light street to Bowly's wharf, is the space 
•^where all the county boats, loaded with oysters, fruit, grain 
■and vegetables, and general farm products, anchor. At the 
-foot of South street are the wharves of the Eastern Shore 
•Steamboat Company, and at Light-street wharf — the final 
landing place for incoming steamers — the York River Line, 
the Shriver Lme, the Maryland Steamboat Company, the 
Weems Line, the Chester River Steamboat Company, tho 
Potomac Transportation Company, the Tolchester Steamboat 
•Company, the Choptank Steamboat Company. 

THE CITY AS A TRADE CENTRE. 

ADVANTAGES OF BALTIMORE AS A POINT FOE THE DISTRIBUTION 

OF GOODS. 

'The distributive trade and commerce of Baltimore consists 
of goods drawn to this city from manufacturers and original 
■dealers, wheresoever located, including those of this city and 
State, and the products of agriculture from the west and south, 
and thence distributed throughout this country and foreign 
lands. While it is a commerce closely related to the industrial 
or manufacturing interests of the city, yet it is carried on by a 
difierent class of men ; it is distinctive in itself, natural in its 
■movement, and may be sub-divided into two classes — the 
internal or domestic trade, and the foreign or export trade, 
together aggregating about $500,000,000 annually. 

These proportions have been reached by, and are due to, a 
combination of circumstances. The fact that the city occupies 
an unusually favorable position for a varied traffic is the prin- 
cipal cause for its having attained the prominent rank of a dis- 
tributive city of the first class. A glance at the map of the 
country will show that the coast trends in a north-easterly 
direction, carrying with it to a remote distance the ports as 
they appear upon its route, thus prolonging their lines of com- 
imunicatioii with the interior as compared with Baltimore. 



195 



The effect of this is to place the city in closer proximity by 
many miles than its northern rivals to every grain and pork- 
producing section of the Union, while every bale of cotton 
and hogshead of tobacco, with the exception of what is grown 
in Connecticut in limited quantities, is produced in latitudes 
upon and below this, and pays the heavier tolls exacted in 
transit above the city as a consequence of increased mileage, to 
say nothing of the natural advantage of 300 miles proximity 
to the centre of sugar production over Xew York. 

It was this principle of proximity and the stand taken by 
the people of Baltimore in demanding for their city, in conse- 
quence of the lesser distance, a lower rate, which induced the 
advisory commission, composed of Messrs. Thurman, Wash- 
burn and Cooley, in the year 1882, to establish deferentials in 
favor of Baltimore over the cities of Philadelphia, New York 
and Boston. 

Baltimore's growth as a distributive market is also due to 
the enterprise of its people in developing its natural geographi- 
cal position, by creating avenues of transportation, in establish" 
ing the means of facilitating the interchansce of commodities 
in which they are able to deal, and to provide successfully from 
its own manufacturing resources, or from those it has acquired, 
the necessities of the districts from which it obtains its sup- 
plies. Dry goods, shoes, lumber, hardware, canned goods, 
leather, groceries, manufactured tobacco, machinery, clothing, 
raw sugars and coffee, and all the articles of import, are ship- 
ped to every State in the Union, to Canada, Mexico, and the 
West Indies, the South American States and to Europe, in 
exchange for coal, grain, provisions, leaf tobacco, iron, oil, 
cattle, lumber, raw sugars, coffee, steel, together with such 
other articles as are received from foreign markets. 

The relationship existing between those who control the dis- 
tributive commerce of Baltimore and her avenues of trans- 
portation is so intimate as to constitute a very close alliance, 
and this spirit of co-operation tends largely to promote the 
growth of the city, and to advance the material prosperity of 
her transportation interests. 



196 



The feeders and outlets are thoroughly eflScient, consisting 
of unbroken railway lines, a service unsurpassed in the world, 
connecting the city with the territory dependent upon and 
tributary to it. Its foreign steamship lines are of the best 
class, and reach all the larger European markets, while its 
coastwise and Chesapeake Bay steamers have large capacity 
and are renoMaied for their elegance and speed. The East, the 
lakes, the northwest, the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, 
the south and southwest, beyond the Mississippi river, the 
Golden Gate, Texas and J\Iexico, and foreign ports, are all 
reached from Baltimore by an unequaled railway and steam- 
ship service. The terminal facilities of the port are unsur- 
passed on the American continent, and owners of foreign 
steamers have found that our port-charges and other expenses, 
especially for coal, are from $1,800 to $2,500 less than at other 

ports. 

Houses in New York and Philadelphia, of equal size, rent 
for much more than is demanded here ; water is abundant and 
cheap, taxes are reasonable, and one can live more comfort- 
ablv in Baltimore on $2,000 a year than is possible in New 
York on $6,000. The city's interests are diversified, possess- 
ino- as it does favorable surroundings for the manufacture and 
nobbing of goods of every description. Its location geographi- 
cally, as compared with that of other cities, is unsurpassed; 
its abilitv to conduct transactions to a profitable conclusion, 
at less expense than is possible either in New York or Phila- 
delphia, and its facilities for material, labor and transportation 
and the economies of every day life, are not equalled by any 
city in the country. 

These great advantages are reasons why it is difticult for 
rivals to absorb any of the distributed trade, and why Balti- 
more is to continue to be one of the leading and most prosper- 
ous distributive markets in the country. Its merchants are 
intelligent and progressive, and possess by inheritance the 
integrity of character requisite for the building up of a lasting 
trade. Indeed, there is no city in the country possessing more 
solid comforts and presenting more inducements to those desir- 
ino- to enter this field of trade than the city of Baltimore. 



197 



BAtTlWORE'S TRADE OF TO-DAY. 

WONDERFUL BUSINESS ACTIVITY ITS VARIED BRANCHES OF 

INDUSTRY STEADY INCREASE IN EVERY DEPARTMENT. 

GRAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE. 

All agree that Baltimore is on the threshold of a great and un- 
paralleled prosperity. The coming decade will be a period of 
advancement and development such as Baltimore has never 
known before. All the conditions favor it. Nature has 
blessed the city in many ways, and on such a basal stone no 
faulty structure has been reared. Witli $600,000,000 of 
wealth and $500,000,000 of trade, witli $40,000,000 of new 
buildings in ten years, millions of increase in commerce, and 
an advancement in all otlier directions commensurate with 
these figures, the results of the future are assured. Here are 
all the elements of success in a greater degree of perfection 
than exist anywhere else on the Atlantic coast. 

Baltimore has reached its present position in the commerce 
of the world not by any hot-house or mushroom process, not by 
any clap-trap argument or exaggeration of facts, but by the 
inevitable force of the favorable circumstances surrounding it, 
enabling it to offer such advantages for trade and such in- 
ducements for capital, that there can be no other result but 
success. 

These advantages are easily made apparent to the skeptical. 
Baltimore is 152 miles nearer Chicago than New York, 210 
miles nearer St. Louis than New York, 246 rniles nearer 
Louisville than New York, and 104 miles nearer Pittsburg 
than New York. Its harbor and harbor approaches, already 
unequalled in their actual advantages for commerce, are con- 
stantly being improved, and by the sum of $700,000 which 
the government is pledged to give for further improvements, 
will be brought to an absolute state of perfection. Baltimore's 
facilities for handling business and transferring cargoes are 
superior to those of the other seaport towns. The Patapsco 
river and the harbor give it more than forty miles of superb 
water front for manufactures. Within five years, more than 
$20,000,000 have been invested in new industries bordering on 



198 



the Patapsco, and the growth in this direction is yet but that 
of an infant compared to what it will be. Almost numberless 
magnificent manufacturing sites still remain at prices which 
make them accessible to moderate capital. These are rapidly 
attracting outside capital and directing our own financial 
resources to their speedy and complete development. Witliin 
thirteen miles of the Chesapeake bay the largest arm of the 
ocean, and one hundred and eighty miles of the ocean, the way 
is opened for the largest ocean steamers, and all the comforts 
and conveniences of a great city are ensured. Central to the 
Atlantic coast line of the United States, it has excellent 
facilities for both foreign and coastwise trade. 

Its railway transportation systems afford the means for the 
receipt and distribution of commodities from and to all parts 
of the country, which are unsurpassed. Its surroundings are 
such as to afford cheap and practically inexhaustible food 
supplies, and it commands convenient access to the coal, iron 
and timber, textile staples, and, in fact, all the supplies neces- 
sary for furnishing materials of the most varied character. 

The Canton Company has the best location in the South, 
and one of the best in the United States, all things considered, 
for the manufacture of textiles. This is not a "balloon" land 
company organized to satisfy the selfish greed of a few 
promoters at the expense of the investing stockholders and 
town lot cranks, but a legitimate, conservative business enter- 
prise, having been in existence for over sixty years, no less a per- 
sonage than the late distinguished ISIew York philanthropist, 
Peter Cooper being its first pi-esideut. The company owns 
2,250 acres of land, partly in and adjacent to the city of Balti- 
more, and it desires to secure the location of textile manu- 
facturing establishments on its pi-operty. The advantages it 
offers are : First, the location of its property on the deep water 
of the Patapsco river-, its holdings on the water front being 
the best in the city, covering over 32,000 feet, the depth of the 
■water being sufficient to float vessels drawing twenty-eight feet 
of water. Second, its property is traversed by the Paltimore 
and Ohio, the Western Maryland and Pennsylvania Eailroad 



199 



systems, the latter comprising the Philadelphia, Wilmington 
and Baltimore, the Northern Central and the Baltimore and 
Potomac Railroads. All of these railroads hre ready to build 
switches to the door of any factory, giving it unparalleled 
facilities for reaching direct all the markets of the country. 
Third, there are now over 30,000 people located on the land 
now owned by or originally belonging to the Canton Company, 
and known as Canton. The entire tax rate is but $6 on the 
thousand. The elevation is as high as the city proper, the 
neighborhood is healthy, and substantial houses can be secured 
for operatives at a nominal rent. About 2,000 such houses 
have recently been erected. The cost of bituminous coal 
mined either in Pennsylvania or West Virginia for manufactur- 
ing purposes is but $2.50, or a little more, a ton. There is no 
shutting down on account of the weather, as at the North, nor 
is the expense of heating as great, for the same reasons. 
Operatives can live more cheaply here, and all the inducements 
are greater. The North has the advantage of capital, and has 
experience and an abundance of skilled labor; but the former 
can easily be removed, and the latter will follow as readily as 
water flows down hill, if it cannot be produced from the abun- 
dance of material already on the ground. 

MANUFACTURING ADVANTAGES. 

All the natural advantages are with Baltimore. Why, then, 
should Lowell or Fall Kiver or any other place be more im- 
portant textile manufacturing centers than Baltimore ? There 
is no reason why this should be so, except fate decreed that 
woolen and cotton manufacturing in this country should begin 
in New England, and, of course, the system of labor in the 
South, to a large extent, kept out of this section many large 
manufacturing enterprises before the war. But a wonderful 
change has taken place during the past dozen years. Cotton 
manufacturing in the South is now far beyond the experi- 
mental stage. The total number of cotton spindles in opera- 
tion in the Southern States in 1887 was 1,465^018; in 1889 it 
was 1,808,002. In 1879 the number was but 501,360—1 e£6 



200 



than one-fourth of whtit it is to-day. One of the largest 
carpet manufacturers is on record as stating within the past 
year that he was compelled to use Southern cotton yarns 
exclusively, because of their lower cost, showing that the 
cruder products of the mills of the South have already taken 
possession of the ISTorthern market. 

In point of water power, Maryland far outranks the State of 
Massachusetts, and stands second to no State in the Union. 
In the neighborhood of Baltimore alone, the unemployed 
power of the Fatapsco river and its branches, of Jones' and 
Gwinn's Falls and their smaller tributaries, and of the Gun- 
powder and the small streams which flow into it, affords an 
abundant supply for a very large number of establishments- 
In addition to this there is a large amount of unimproved 
power on the Fatuxent river and other streams, which, taking 
their rise in the higher portions of our very hilly State, find 
outlets at different points on the Chesapeake bay, while the 
power capable of being supplied by the Falls of the Fotomac 
alone is so vast that beside it the combined powers of Lowell, 
Fall River and Fatterson are comparatively trifling. The 
canal which runs along the Maryland side of this river, from 
the Falls to Georgetown, serves in fact as a great race, which 
can at any moment be tapped at almost any point for a dis- 
tance of twenty miles, and is capable of furnishing abundance 
of power to countless mills, for the erection of which, between 
the canal and the river, there is abundant space. Could this 
be converted into a vast manufacturing region, it would not 
only contribute directly to the wealth of the State, by the 
large rent which would be paid for the use of the water 
power, but indirectly, by creating a market and demand for 
agricultural supplies from that section, through the influx and 
settlement of a large manufacturing population. The re- 
sources of our coal fields, the superior quality of the Cumber- 
land coal and its great adaptability to many branches of 
manufactures, especially those of metals, are very generally 
known. The fact that large quantities of it are constantly 
shipped to the New England States, is sufficient proof, if any 



201 



were needed, of the great importance of this valuable source 
of our wealth. Proximity to the coal beds affords to the 
manufacturers of Maryland manifest advantages over those of 
other States, who, to the original cost at the port of shipment, 
have to add the additional cost of transportation. In addition 
to these most striking advantages, the mildness of our climate, 
the comparative shortness of our winter, and the large agri- 
cultural resources of our State are all matters of evident 
importance. They enable the operatives to support themselves 
and their families at a less expenditure than is required at the 
N^orth, and, as a natural consequence, greater cheapness of 
labor, must be the eventual result of greater cheapness of 
living. Still another advantage, confined chiefly to the manu- 
facture of cotton, which is, however, a very large and most 
important interest, is our greater proximity to the place of pro- 
duction of the raw material. Our advantages over the New 
England States, as a manufacturing point for the Southern 
States are of so marked a character that they will, when care- 
fully examined, be at once comprehended ; and should induce 
northern capitalists and manufacturers especially, to invest in 
this State. In so doing, they would I'un no possible risk. 
They would have no difficulty in competing successfully in all 
those markets with which they had the nearest and most direct 
communication. 

In the establishment of woolen and worsted, hosiery and 
kindred manufactories in Baltimore, manufacturers could 
secure their raw materials from the South, and West Virginia 
and Ohio, over two trunk lines of railroad ; cotton, jean, 
satinet and the like manufacturers can secure cotton by direct 
line of steamers from the largest cotton ports in the United 
States, and there would be no difficulty whatever in securing 
the necessary white female help here. The population of 
Boston, the home of so many of these industries, is only a few 
thousand behind that of Baltimore, and if Baltimore keeps up 
the record she has made in the past ten years, she will outstrip 
Boston by 1900, having gained 102,126 since 1886, while 
Boston can boast of an increase of but 85,639 in the same time. 



202 



TRADE AND COMMERCE. 

In the quantity and variety of business, the city's commerce 
is now the greatest in its history. Figures show an enormous 
increase and the growing greatness of Baltimore's trade. Even 
in a comparison with 1881 — a year of great activitj' — the com- 
merce of Baltimore shows an increase of more than $17,000,- 
000. Baltimore is, by far, the most convenient and safest port 
for immigration in the country. Its facilities for the care of 
the new population are unequaled, as there is direct commun- 
ication from the ships to the cars. 

The products of the west find here their shortest route and 
most accessible shipping point on the Atlantic, making it the 
natural outlet for the productions of that great agricultural 
region. For foreign fruits and the products of the West 
Indies and South America, it is nearer by twenty-four hours 
than Philadelphia and by forty-eight hours than New York, 
while its railway facilities for distributing these goods in 
western markets are unrivalled. In the benefits of reciprocity 
with the South American republics, Baltimore will largely 
participate. It is more closely allied with Brazil, which com- 
prises one half of South America, than any other North 
American port. The fact that the first steamship line to 
Brazil, under the reciprocity act was started from Baltimore is 
a sufficient guarantee of what may be expected in the early 
future. The activity and enterprise of our merchants and 
manufacturers is an evidence that they are thoroughly alive to 
the opportunities of the present and the possibilities of the 
future. The ability of our market to successfully compete for 
trade has been demonstrated beyond question. 

In all respects the city is on a solid basis for unlimited 
growth. Its annual business for manufacturing trade and com- 
merce for the year ending January 1, M^as $500,000,000 —an 
extraordinary total, which is made up by thousands of indus- 
tries and transportation agencies, reaching to all parts of the 
world. During the past ten years the results of its progress 
have been enormous. Many of the manufacturing enterprises 
have doubled and trebled their size and product. In the com- 



203 



mercial and distributive trade the advance has been unprece- 
dented, and the total for the fiscal year ending June 1 was the 
enormous sum of $260,000,000. In the past ten years 20,000 
buildings have been erected, representing $40,000,000 of in- 
vestment and more miles of street railway have been built 
than in any eastern city. Educational facilities and accommo- 
dations have kept pace w4th the advance in other lines, and 
the increase has been at least fifty per cent. Outside the city 
limits more than $10,000,000 have been invested in manufac- 
turing plant. The extension of the city's commerce, both 
domestic and foreign, has been so great that it has made Balti- 
more the second port in the United States. Since 1885 the 
commerce of the port has increased from $45,94.4,959 to 
$97,344,746, an advance in six years of $51,399,787 or more 
than, double. During the same time the custom-house receipts 
increased more than sixty per cent. The increase of foreign 
exports of 1890 over 1889 was $2,000,000, greater than the 
combined increase of New York, Boston and Pliladelphia for 
the same period. The foreign exports from Baltimore in 1890 
were valued at $72,000,000, against $62,000,000 in 1889, an 
increase of $10,000,000, while the combined increase from 
New York, Philadelphia and Boston for the same year was 
less than $8,000,000. One third of the total increase in ex- 
ports in 1890 from the United States was made from Baltimore. 

The immigration in the past year was 48,274, against only 
29,070 the year before. The ship building interests have been 
restored, and some of the finest work in ship building is being 
done in Baltimore. 

Baltimore has the finest coastwise trade of any American 
port, with an aggregate of nearly 6,000,000 tons, extending along 
the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico and 
along the Pacific coast to San Francisco. The inland com- 
merce has shown still greater growth. Ten railroads connect- 
ing with the railroad systems of this country, Canada and 
Mexico, reach this city, and are constantly extending their con- 
nections and opening up new territory. The railroads handle 
for Baltimore the tremendous total 20,000,000,000 pounds of 



HOI 



trade annually, an increase of forty per cent, since 1881. All 
these things show beyond all dispute the value of Baltimore's 
position. Fifty six per cent, of wheat, seventy-six per cent, of 
corn, every bale of cotton and every hogshead of tobacco, 
■except the small crops of Connecticut are grown on and below 
Baltimore's parallel of latitude. 

Maryland's soft coal industry is one of the greatest in the 
state. The benefits of this vast trade are far-reaching; and 
extend from the miner through all the diverse avenues of 
trade. The semi-bitmminous mines are in Allegany and Gar- 
rett counties, the famous Cumberland coal region. This trade 
has increased from 1,708 tons, the first shipment over the Bal- 
timore and Ohio Eailroad in 1842, to 4,000,000 tons, the maxi- 
mum production in 1890. The Cumberland coal region is 
remarkable for the fine quality of the coal and the size of the 
vein. Although the largest shipments are by water from Bal- 
timore to New York and New England ports, a market has 
been recently opened up to the ports along the coast as far as 
Florida and to the islands south of the United States, and 
occasionally a large cargo is sent around Cape Horn to Cali- 
fornia. The outlets from the mines are the Baltimore and 
Ohio, the Cumberland and Pennsylvania and the George's 
Creek and Cumberland Railroads and the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal. The total shipment from the mines since they 
were opened in 1S42 have been 66,643,835 tons, and the 
amount of capital invested there is $30,000,000. Baltimore is 
the selling and shipping point by water for a large quantity of 
bituminous coal from the northeastern part of West Virginia. 
Most of it is brouglit to Cumberland and from there shipped 
over the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Philadelphia 
and the rest of it by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Balti- 
more, whence a considerable quantity is sent to New England 
ports. An immense quantity is also shipped to market by the 
West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad, which has 
obtained a charter to make it an independent line to Balti. 
more. The coal from the new coal fields in West Virginia, 
.south of Fairmount, which are being opened by the help of 



205 



Baltimore capital, is mostly shipped from Pittsburg west, but 
it is moved by Baltimore railroad companies, and a large 
part of the profits from the freight, as well as the sales of 
coal and coke, come to Baltimore. 

GUANO AND FEKTILIZEES. 

Baltimore is the pioneer city in the guano and fertilizing 
business, and the value of fertilizers has caused their manufac- 
ture and distribution to become a most important branch of 
the trade of Baltimore. For many years Baltimore was the 
only port in the United States for the importation and sale of 
Peruvian guano, and it has, by its superior facilities, increased 
its hold upon the industry. All varieties of fertilizers known 
to the trade, and likely to be beneficial to any known land, can 
be purchased in Baltimore. Along the harbor and shores of 
the Patapsco are the various fertilizing works, having a com- 
bined capacity for an output of about 200,000 tons a year, with 
annual sales exceeding $3,000,000. One of the chief causes of 
the successful manufacture and sale of fertilizers here is that 
the dealers have held close to an honest policy, and have 
studiously refrained from any imposition upon consumers. 
No Baltimore firm, in the history of the trade here, has ever 
been found guilty of any deception in the line of their business. 
The industry employs thousands of workingmen. Vessels of 
all sizes, scows and tugs, are required constantly to carry on 
this vast business, while the tonnage carried by the railroads in 
this one line is an enormous element in tlieii' freight receipts. 
Baltimore supplies Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio 
and other states, the trade extending to the gulf. Every day 
there is a busy scene in and around the works and at the 
wharves where this business is handled. Nearly the entire 
ISTavassa production comes to Baltimore and is utilized by the 
city trade. This is one of the many evidences of Baltimore's 
great consumption of raw material, and a correspondingly large 
output of finished product. 

CANNING INDUSTRY. 

No single interest in Baltimore is better known than the 
packing industry. In the amount of its capital, the excellence 



206 



of its work, the extent of its ramifications and the general 
reputation of its houses, it occupies a leading place. The Bal- 
timore canned oyster is know wherever civilization reaches, 
and its fruits and vegetables have a fame as well earned and as 
far-reaching. No other city compares with Baltimore in the 
abundance and quality of its canning resources. The richest 
oyster territory in the world has it for its market. The finest 
fruit and vegetable area in the United States is within five 
hours of its depots and wharves, and immediately surrounding 
it is a country abounding in magnificent orchards and small 
fruit and truck farms. With all these advantages at hand, it 
is unavoidable that Baltimore must supply more canned goods 
to the world than any other city engaged in the canning busi- 
ness. Baltimore packers have done more to protect the quality 
of canned goods than all others. They have secured the pas- 
sage of laws, agreements, and trade-marks, to protect the pnr- 
chaser against fraud and misrepresentation, and they have 
given the trade a standing which is recognized everywhere. 
Their work in the establishment of honest standards is appre- 
ciated all over the United States, and the consequence is that 
Baltimore canned goods are always what they are represented 
to be, and accepted without question as being fully up to all 
that is claimed for them. The canning industry has grown 
enormously in the last twenty years, and now aggregates an 
annual business of $22,000,000 to $25,000,000, and pays good 
wages to about 15,000 hands. This great industry has given 
Baltimore the leading place in the manufacture of tin cans, 
more than 50,000,000 cans being made in the city each year. 
Some establishments employ more than a 1,000 hands in busy 
seasons. 

AS A FLOUR MARKET. 

The location of Baltimore as the center of a belt of country 
remarkable for its fertility makes it a market of the greatest 
availability for produce of every kind. The farmers of West- 
ern Maryland join with the tobacco planters of Southern 
Maryland, and the truck-farmers of the Eastern Shore and 
Virginia, in sending the products of their labor to Baltimore 



207 



to be disposed of. The productiveness of this extensive region 
and the cultivation of diversified crops in the section contigu. 
ous and tributary to this market, have made Baltimore the 
receiving and distributing point for dairy products of every 
sort. The farms, dairies and orchards of Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania always find this their best market. The grain trade 
is always increasing, and additional facilities of all kinds are 
constantly being provided, commensurate with the business 
done. 

Few branches of the commerce and industries of this city 
show greater activity, and none has achieved a more marked 
prominence in the aggregate, than the flour trade. In this 
department, Baltimore is the center, both of production and 
distribution, and the home of important milling enterprises. 
The leading mills are of large capacity, and in their equipment 
combine every modern improvement for the manufacture of 
flour of a superior quality. Maryland wheat is peculiarly 
suited for the production of fine export flour. The local out- 
put of this grade is very large, and by its sustained superiority 
of quality, brings the highest prices in foreign countries. 
Thousands of barrels of Uour are shipped from Baltimore to 
all sections of the United States, and about 2,500,000 barrels 
were exported, in 1891, to England, the Continent, the West 
Indies and South America. Brazil is one of the largest cus- 
tomers of the Baltimore millers and wholesalers, and this export 
of flour tends to promote the interests of the city in increasing 
its trade with that country, and in the increased activity in 
the importation of coiiee and other Brazilian commodities as 
return cargoes. The export flour trade of this city is by no 
means confined to the shipping of the home product, as many 
of the mills of the great northwest, are finding in Baltimore, 
their most convenient shipping point for reaching the best 
foreign markets. The receipts each week cannot be averaged, 
but the total quantity of flour in barrels and sacks, both im- 
ported and of home manufacture, amounts to large figures at 
the end of the year. Cargo upon cargo of flour is shipped 
from Baltimore to South America each month, and the araount 



208 



exported to England and the Continent is of heavy and con- 
stantly increasing proportions. In 1891, there was exported 
from the port of Baltimore, 2,736,153 barrels of flour. Grain 
cargoes go from here each week, both in steana and sailing 
vessels. This export business is capable of wonderful expan- 
sion, and the fact that Baltimore is the nearest Atlantic port 
accessible by rail from the most productive regions of the 
west, is one that assures expansion in that direction. In mill- 
feed, corn, hay and oats, there is an active local trade, and busi- 
ness in this line is in a healthy condition. 

The transactions in foreign fruit are of steadily increasing 
volume, and the annual importations are large to this market. 
Two lines of steamers run regularly between Baltimore and 
the West Indies all through the year, bringing every variety 
of tropical fruit. The oyster question is one of the most im- 
portant and interesting to the city and State. It is, by far, the 
largest industy in the State. Thousands of people and hun- 
dreds of boats are engaged in the business, and the revenue 
derived amounts to millions of dollars annually. Besides 
being the center of a productive truck country, Baltimore is, 
by its natural advantages, one of the best iish markets in the 
country. Maryland shad, rock, perch and other fish are famous 
all over the eastern country. The Susquehanna Flats are the 
best fishing grounds near the city, but the big hauls are made 
in the Potomac river. All the tributaries of the Chesapeake 
send their catch to Baltimore for market, and, next to the 
oyster industry, this is the largest in the counties bordering on 
the bay. It will thus be easily seen that the products of the 
soil and of the w^ater find in Baltimore their most available 
and advantageous market. I^early the whole soutli draws its 
supplies from Baltimore, and the city commands, besides, the 
bulk of the wholesale trade south of Mason and Dixon's line, a 
laro-e and increasing portion of the northern, eastern and west- 
ern trade. 

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 

The manufacturing and productive interests are very much 
diversified in character. Over seventy-five per cent, of all the 



209 



cotton sail duck manufactured in the United States is produced 
by Baltimore mills, and it is safe to say tliat sixty per cent, of 
all the cotton duck used in the world is made in the State of 
Maryland. There are over twenty factories in and contiguous 
to Baltimore, and operated by Baltimore capital. These mills 
run about 2,500 looms, with about 150,000 spindles. They 
employ 5,000 or 6,000 people, male and female, and $1,500,000 
or more annually, is paid out in wages. The raw material 
used, over 80,000 bales of cotton, is worth from $4,000,000 to 
$5,000,000, while the annual product aggregates between 
$7,000,000 and $8,000,000. This product is supplied to all 
parts of the United States, and is shipped largely to foreign 
countries. 

Baltimore is now the largest ready-made clothing manufac- 
turing city in Americo. There are about 40 wholesale houses, 
with a capital of $6,000,000, who give employment to at least 
13,000 people. Their annual sales amount to about $15,000,000. 
The value of the material used is over $8,000,000, and about 
$3,000,000 is paid out in wages. This business is constantly 
increasing, and the standard of excellence is not surpassed else- 
where. The facilities for producing at a minimum cost chiefly 
because the expense is smaller here than in other cities, enable 
Baltimore dealers to hold their own against the strongest com- 
petitors. This is so to such an extent that large quantities of 
the manufactured goods find their way to New York and to 
the sources of the raw material. 

To illustrate the growth of this industry, the manufacturers 
of clothing produced in 1880, $9,000,000 of goods and in 1890, 
over $14,000,000. The firms engaged in importing and job- 
bing cloths, cashmeres and vestings are capitalized in the ag- 
gregate at $1,000,000 or more, and do four times that amount 
in business. The retailers also do a business of several mil- 
lions on a capital of about $1,000,000. The dry goods inter- 
est is universally recognized as the leading and most important 
branch of mercantile business in the city. One house alone 
has a trade of more than $3,000,000, and another of over 
$2,000,000, while a number of others range in their trans- 

14 



210 



actions from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. This trade and the 
allied branches of dry goods, commission, white goods, notions, 
•etc., aggregates $34,000,000. There are more than ninety- 
three firms with a capital of $12,000,000 engaged in the dry 
goods and notion business. These employ an army of people, 
and the wages amount annually to over $1,250,000. The re- 
tail stores alone do a business of ©ver $5,000,000, and the com- 
mission agent does a large share of the business. The milli- 
nery and white goods wholesale trade is one of the largest of 
any eity in the country. The eight or nine firms here, with a 
capital of about $1,000,000, do a business in all parts of the 
United States that reaches $4,000,000 or $5,000,000. In the 
millinery trade about forty per cent. — which includes hats, 
bonnets, flowers, feathers, ribbons, silks, velvets and various 
-trimming goods — is imported, while sixty percent, is of domes- 
tic manufacture. 

The manufacture of shirts, underwear and overalls is a most 
active industry and the largest in the United States. Skilled 
hands are employed, and in several of the shirt factories 
employment is given to hundreds of men and women. There 
are about thirty-five factories engaged in the manufacture of 
these articles, and a number that make women's underwear and 
corsets, who employ about 6,000 hands. The estimated aggre- 
gate of production in these two lines is about $6,000,000. 
Within the past ten years these industries have more than 
doubled their capacity, as well as their output. From 
$1,000,000 in 18S0, they produced over $4,000,000 in 1890. 
Notions of almost every conceivable kind are manufactured in 
Baltimore. The various lines of manufacture and trade in this 
class are represented by houses of large resources and wide- 
spread reputation. In no branch of trade are the indications 
of future expansion brighter, and no more systematic or more 
valuable effort being made to advance the commercial 
supremacy of Baltimore. 

The magnitude of Baltimore's manufacturing interests is not 
fully appreciated even by the people who live in it. There 
are only about one or two cities in the United States that out- 



211 



rank Baltimore as a manufacturing city. The total amount of 
capital invested in the 3,683 manufacturing establishments of 
various kinds that existed in 1880, was $38,586,000, with a 
product of $78,417,000. The establishments of 1890 num- 
bered 5,600, with a capital of $60,000,000, yielding a product 
valued at $125,000,000. To this estimate there should be 
added, for greater accuracy, the manufacturing industries of 
Canton, aggregating probably $10,000,000, and of Steelton and 
Curtis Bay, adding, combined, $15,000,000. So that the total 
product might be placed at $150,000,000. 

BRICK MANUFACTURE. 

Brick making in Baltimore is an industry of great import- 
ance. There are nearly forty establishments of considerable 
size, most of them turning out handsome bricks, although 
steam and machinery has of late years been employed in the 
industry. The number of men employed in brick making 
ranges from 3,000 to 4,000, according as the yards are busy or 
not, and these employees represent a population of from 12,000 
to 18,000. The capital invested is about, a million and a 
quarter dollars. The yearly production varies according to the 
demand, from 130,000,000 to 150,000,000. The city ranks 
fourth in the IJnion as a brick-making centre, being sur- 
passed only by New York, Philadelphia and Chicago in the 
number made. In quality, however, Baltimore surpasses all 
her rivals. The three cities that make a larger quantity of 
bricks gain their pre-eminence simply because they are two or 
three times as large as Baltimore, and the greater local demand 
leads to a greater production of the common and medium 
grades. The finer quality of Baltimore trick as a rule com- 
mand $10 a thousand more in the market than similar grades 
made elsewhere. 

The brickyards are situated in the southern, southwestern 
and eastern sections of the city, along the outskirts, where the 
population is comparatively scant. 

The local facilities for brick-making are almost unequaled. 
To carry on the industry with any degree of profit and success, 



212 



two elements are absolutely essential, viz. : An abundance of 
suitable clay conveniently obtainable and plenty of water, 
both as a means of transportation and as an indispensable 
ingredient in the composition of the bricks. Both of these, 
Baltimore possesses in almost superfluous quantity and of excel- 
lent quality. 

That part of the southwestern section of the city known to 
the brick men as Carroll's field can boast of having afforded a 
site for the first of Baltimore's brickyards, to which have since 
been added many more in the neighborhood of the Spring 
Gardens, Columbia avenue and the Washington road. Yards 
of various dimensions and capacities are located in these sec- 
tions. In the eastern, at the extremity of Monument, Gay and 
Biddle streets, there are a dozen or more flourishing brickyards. 

They cover from five or six to fifteen or twenty acres each, 
including the space occupied by sheds and kiln and the clay 
banks, which are in every instance within convenient hauling 
distance of the sheds. 

Beside these. Light and Charles streets are boarded by yards 
at their southern extremities, and across the Spring Gardens in 
Baltimore county are several others. The productive capacity 
of these establishments varies from 1,000,000 to 15,000,000 
bricks each, per year. 

"With the exception of the vitrified brick, the local yards 
manufacture pretty much every imaginable kind of brick, of 
all sizes, shapes, colors and at all prices. The output includes 
the common run of kiln, sand, fire, paving, fancy, terra cotta 
and red, white, chocolate and buff press bricks, the latter being 
the most costly. 

The trade is, of course largely local and domestic, as is 
natural in the case of an industry of this character. The out- 
side trade is principally with Kew York, Philadelphia and 
Hartford in the north, St. Louis, Louisville and Chicago in the 
west, and Richmond, Savannah and Jacksonville in the south. 
This outside traffic is limited to pressed and fancy bricks of a 
superior quality, the sections mentioned supplying their own 
common brick as a rule. 



213 



The workmen in the brick-yards are for the most part paid 
bj the piece. Skilled workmen receive from $2 to $3 per day, 
according to their proficiency, while ordinary labor earns from 
$1.10 to $1.25 per day. The proprietors, too, secure good 
returns from their investments. 

PENNSYLVANIA STEEL WORKS. 

The supreme advantages of Baltimore have been emphasized 
by the location here of the largest combined iron and steel 
works in the world, which have been established by the Penn- 
sylvania Steel Works of Harrisburg, Pa. Without even the 
knowledge of Baltimore people, this city was selected after 
careful investigation of every large city on the Atlantic coast, 
and notwithstanding the most vigorous efforts of Philadelphia 
to secure this enterprise. Not a dollar of bonus was asked or 
paid. The site, including 1,200 acres of water front was 
bought and paid for by the company. Five million dollars has 
already been spent upon this plant, and probably five million 
more will be invested. It will make nearly as much iron, 
when fully completed, as the whole State of Alabama now 
produces, and nearly one-fifth as much as the whole State of 
Pennsylvania. 

Four furnaces to make 1,000 tons a day have been built and 
four more will eventually be added. These eight furnaces 
will have a yearly capacity of over 600,000 tons of Bessemer 
iron. A rail mill to make 1,000 tons of steel rails a day has 
been completed. An iron and steel ship-building yard has 
just gone into operation. This gigantic combination now em- 
ploys about 2,000 skilled mechanics and will increase the num- 
ber to 5,000 as fast as possible. This is but one of the great 
industrial enterprises lately started near Baltimore. 

COPPER WORKS. 

The largest copper rolling works in America are in Baltimore, 
and an additional new $500,000 plant is under construction. 

The annual products of these works exceed 30,000 pounds 
of copper, and produce an immense amount of sulphate of 
copper, sulphuric acid, &c. They employ about 500 men, and 



214 



exported in 1890, 31,000 tons of copper matter, valued at 
$6,000,000. 

MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES. 

Baltimore is in the front rank of cities for the manufacture of 
boots and shoes. Her stocks include every variety, and her fac- 
tory goods are equal if not superior to any made in the United 
States. The trade in this line is rapidl}^ increasing, having 
advanced over 30 per cent, in the last five years. The sales 
during 1891, amounted to about $12,000,000. The leather 
tanned in Maryland is among the best in the country. The 
sales in this line amounted to about $9,000,000, in 1891. 

The brass foundries and finishing works are a large factor in 
the industries of Baltimore and give employment to about 
2,000 hands. The manufacture of furniture is also on the 
increase. In 1891 Baltimore manufactured about $3,000,- 
000, giving employment to nearly 2,500 skilled workmen. 

There are about 150 dealers in hardware, who do a 
business of about $25,000,000. Baltimore is easily the 
leading city in the United States in the manufacture of 
straw goods, and the trade is constantly increasing, due to the 
superior character of the manufacture. There are nine manu- 
facturing firms with a capital of about $750,000, employing 
1,200 hands, with annual sales of about $2,000,000. One-half 
of the entire production of curled hair and bristles produced in 
the United States are manufactured in Baltimore. The sales 
in this industry amount to about $2,000,000 annually. Balti- 
more has always been a prominent centre of music, and the 
manufacture of pianos and musical instruments have always 
kept pace with this progress. The sales in this industry alone 
amounts to about $3,000,000 annually. One establishment 
represents a capital of $1,000,000 and employs about 800 
persons. 

TOBACCO TRADE. 

The tobacco trade is one of the oldest and most valuable 
belonging to Baltimore. The crop of 1890 was 30,000 hogs- 
heads, of good quality. Maryland tobacco is almost entirely 
consumed abroad, Holland being the largest single consumer; 



215 

France next, and Germany third. , Besides the Maryland crop^ 
the entire crop of Eastern Ohio finds its market in Baltimore^ 
and a large part of the crops of North Carolina and Virginia. 
The value of the Maryland and Ohio crop sold, in Baltimore 
ranges from $1,500,000 to $2,500,000 annually. The amount 
of the leaf exported and consumed at home reduced the stock 
on December 31, 1889, to 21,661 hogsheads. December 31^ 
1890, the stock in the warehouses had decreased to 9,585 hogs- 
heads, which was the smallest stock held in Baltimore at that 
season in many years. In the manufacture of smoking tobacco, 
fine-cut Ciiewing tobacco, cigar?, cigarettes and snuff, several 
millions yf dollars have been invested. 

The yearly product of all the smoking tobacco and snuff 
factories is about 11,000,000 pounds, while tlie output of the 
largest cigar manufactories is about $19,000,000 a year, and 
the smallest establishments combined, turn out nearly three- 
quarters of 'a million. Most of these goods are of medium 
grade, but some few factories give a great deal of attention to 
the fine grades, made entirely of imported tobacco. The to- 
bacco factories employ more than 1,300 hands, while the 
largest ef the cigar factories employ from seventy-five to one 
hundred hands each. The products of all these factories are 
shipped all over the United States, and some to foreign coun- 
tries. Their business is increasing every year. The manufac- 
ture of tobacco has shown a substantial growth, and the output 
has increased within the past few yeai*s from 3,000,000 pounds 
to over 15,000,000 pounds annually. 

MISCELLANEOUS TRADE OF 1891. 

The value of the output for 1891, of various other branches 
of trade are found to be: Bar iron and steel $1,000,000; 
Lithography, $500,000 ; Patent medicines and drugs, $10,000,- 
000; confectionery and fruit $5,000'000; paints, oil and glass; 
$5,000,000 ; wooden ware, brooms, willoware, $2,000,000 ; china- 
ware, crockery &c., $1,000,000; stone and marble, $1,000,000; 
paper bags, $500,000. The receipts of live stock in Baltimore 
for the year 1891, were as follows: Cattle,179,163, sheep 
395,762, hogs 506,435. Over 65,000 cattle were exported to 
foreign ports. 



216 



FOREIGN IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 

The principal foreign imports and exports during the year 
1891 were as follows: 

Imports — 4:65,979 tons iron ore, 1,025,464 boxes tin plate, 
46,327 sacks, 7,382 tons and 89,138 bushels salt, 63,507 pack- 
ages chemicals, 170,270 bags coffee, 647,143 bunches bananas, 
1,799,000 cocoanuts, 369,184 dozen pineapples, 45,257 bags 
nitrate soda, 30,989 tons agricultural salts, 14,555 tons brim- 
stone, 57,641 bags rice, 27,150 bags bone meal, 135,567 casks 
cement, 15,858 barrels whiskey, 495 hogsheads and 81 tierces 
molasses, 943 hogsheads, 100 tierces and 198,644 bags sugar, 
582 tons guano. 

Exports— 4,085,400 bushels corn, 16,331,311 bushels wheat 
768,854 bushels rye, 2,555,860 barrels flour, 468,410 cases 
canned goods, 45,603 hogsheads tobacco, 166,915 bushels clover 
seed, 203,822 bales cotton, 118,628 tons coal, 103,839 barrels 
rosin, 64,899 cattle, 8,922,995 gallons refined petroleum, 1,608,- 
000 staves, 61,716,324 pounds lard, 32,204,000 feet lumber, 
46,653 logs wood. 

BALTIMORE LEADS THE COUNTRY. 

The total exports of breadstuffs from the United States in 
January 1892, amounted to $30,147,281 against $9,718,586 for 
the corresponding month of 1891. For the seven months 
beginning with July '91, and ending with January 31,1892, 
the value of the breadstuffs exported was $186,136,744, as 
compared with $64,524,799 for the same months of the pre- 
ceding fiscal year, showing the immense gain of over $121,- 
000,000. Comparing the exports from Atlantic ports as com- 
piled by the Beareau of Statistics we have some figures that 
show how Baltimores foreign trade is growing. 

The exports of corn in January were as follows : 
From Bushels. 

New York 3,493,407 

Boston 371,022 

Philadelphia 4,282,053 

Baltimore 4,519,480 

New Orleans 1,378,523 



217 



As these figures show Baltimore's corn exports for January 
exceeded New York by over 1,000,000 bushels, and the differ- 
ence would have been very much greater, but for the fact that 
our railroads could not handle all of the grain offered and 
large quantities were diverted to Philadelphia. 

Comparing the total value of exports of breadstuff s from 
Boston, Philadelphia and New Orleans and Baltimore for the 
seven months ended January 31, 1892, we have: 

Boston $9,300,404 

Philadelphia 14,783,009 

New Orleans 12,401,634 



Total exports 36,485,047 

" Baltimore 31,387,835 

Thus notwithstanding the diversion of grain from Baltimore 
to Philadelphia, and of the great increase at New Orleans due 
largely to the inability of railroads to handle the grain, thus 
forcing it down the Mississippi, Baltimore in the last seven 
months has exported almost as much breadstuffs as Boston, 
Philadelphia and New Orleans combined. 

The number of sail vessels which entered Baltimore during 
the year from foreign ports was 214, measuring 81,050 tons ; 
620 steam vessels entered Baltimore from foreign ports, meas- 
uring 993,850 tons. 

The number of sail vessels which cleared from Baltimore 
during the year for foreign ports, was 289, measuring 62,628 
tons ; and the number of steam vessels cleared from Baltimore 
for foreign ports, was 619, measuring 1,002,497. 

As the laws do not require vessels in the coasting or domes- 
tic trade to enter or clear at the Custom-house, quite a number 
do not do so, and it is therefore impossible to obtain full statis- 
tics about coastwise commerce, but the number of vessels which 
entered Baltimore, was 1,215, measuring 1,181,348 tons, and 
the number that cleared, was 2,012, measuring 1,548,901 tons. 
There were eighteen new vessels built and documented in this 
district with a tonnage of 3,200 tons. There are 1,191 vessels 
owned and documented in the district of Baltimore, represent- 
ing a carrying capacity of 153,108 tons. 



218 



SHIP BUILDING INDUSTRY. 

The rapid forward strides made bj all branches of business 
in Baltimore daring the year 1891, was very marked in the 
ship building industry. In the twelve months ending January 
1st, 1892, twenty-two vessels have been either launched or are 
practically ready for their initial dip in the water of the harbor. 
These represent an aggregate gross tonnage of about 8,424, and 
a total valuation of about $1,639,000. Besides this, there has 
been a large repair business, and all the shipyards have been 
kept busy. 

As compared with the year 1890, the past makes a most 
creditable showing. There has been a larger number of new 
vessels built, and a larger aggregate valuation, though the ton- 
nage is relatively smaller. The total expenditure in repairs 
also exceedg that of 1890. 

In the past year, the list of Baltimore shipyards has been 
augmented by the opening of the marine department of the 
Maryland Steel Company's Works at Sparrows' Point. These 
works have turned out two lar^e steel tug-s, each valued at 
$40,000. Two large passenger steamers are also being con- 
structed there. 

At the Columbian Iron Works, the United States Cruisers 
Montgomery and Detroit have been launched. Each is of 
2,000 tons burden, and the bid for the two was $1,250,000. 

As a shipbuilding station Baltimore takes an early pre- 
cedence among American cities. Ships were built at Fell's 
Point before the founding of Baltimore Town in 1730. Dur- 
ing the various difficulties in which this county was engaged 
with foreign nations the ship-yards of Baltimore were very 
active in fitting out cruisers to annoy the enemy. At the 
breaking out of the Revolutionary War the Congressional Marine 
Committee equipped in Baltimore a sloop and schooner, the 
first cruisers of the new government. In December, 1775, 
Congress ordered the Virginia frigate to be built here, and she 
was launched in the following year from a ship-yard at Fell's 
Point. In the war for independence, notwithstanding the 
powerful navy of Great Britian blockaded the Chesapeake, 
over two hundred and forty-eight privateers, with letters of 



219 



marque and reprisal, sailed from the port of Baltimore. They 
carried an aggregate armament of eighteen hundred and ten 
guns and six hundred and forty swivels. These privateers 
were the foundation of the United States Navy, and many of 
the most distino^uished naval officers mentioned in American 
history began their career as officers of these Baltimore 
cruisers. 

At the time of the threatened war between France and 
England in 1798, which it was feared would involve the 
United States, the patriotic citizens of Baltimore took an active 
and zealous part in building and equipping wsar vessels for our 
government. The citizens at a cost of nearly half a million of 
dollars, built at Fell's Point and presented to the United States 
the sloops of war "Maryland" and "Chesapeake." The former 
carried twenty-six guns and the latter twenty guns. The 
frigate "Constellation," of thirty-eight guns, which afterwards 
captured the French frigate "Insurgente," was built in this 
city, at the ship-yard of David Stoddert. The "Baltimore" and 
"Montezuma," of twenty guns each, and the "Louisiana" were 
also built here by our skillful shipbuilders. 

In the war of 1812-14, Baltimore again took lead in fitting 
out war vessels, and was more active and patriotic in annoying 
the enemy than any other city in the Union. Of the two hun- 
dred and fifty privateers that sailed from all the states com- 
bined, this city contributed tifty-eight. In 1826 a sixty-four 
gun frigate was launched in Baltimore for the Brazilian 
government. 

The immense demands which the late civil war occasioned 
gave full employment to the naval constructors and the Abbott 
Iron Works in this city. The largest orders were filled here 
with a promptness and fidelity which elicited the special thanks 
of the department and the praise of the officers to whom the 
work was delivered. On one occasion in 1863, the late Horace 
Abbott completed an order for 250,000 pounds of rolled iron 
in forty-eight hours, and Received from Secretary Wells a let- 
ter in commendation of his fidelity and energy. The Abbott 
Iron Works furnished the rolled iron plates for the Monitor 
which fought the Merrimac in Hampton Eoads, and subse- 



220 



queritlj furnished the armor plates for nearly all the vessels of 
the monitor class built on the Atlantic coast. He also made 
the plates for the large ironclads Roanoke, Agamenticus, 
Monadnock and other formidable vessels that took such a 
prominent part in the conflicts of the late war. Besides these 
contributions to the navy of the country, the gunboats 
"Eutaw," "Pinola" and the monitor "Waxhaw" were also con- 
structed here. 

The best evidence of the superior workmanship and skill of 
our shipbuilders, can be found in our clipper ships, which have 
never been surpassed elsewhere in America, and not even 
approached in Europe. These "skimmers of the seas," com- 
manded by expert and daring masters, in the early days of our 
city became the sovereigns of the West Indian trade, and even 
of some of the European traffics, and laid the foundation of 
■our present commercial greatness. They furnished other ports 
with models for their best ships, and the changes introduced 
by the fast European steamers may be directly traced to the 
model of the clipper ships of Baltimore. 

In view of these facts there is reason to beleive that there is 
no city in the country which possesses greater advantages for 
building fine ships or cruisers than this, and with a little enter- 
prise on the part of our people, we can secure a share of the 
government work. Baltimore has the same skill and material, 
the energy and capital, the same cheapness of labor, and all her 
other facilities which made her clipper-built ships, frigates and 
monitors known throughout the world. The new demand for 
iron cruisers will find this port equally prepared with all the 
appliances for the construction of that class of vessels. The 
government will not only find here a deep, straight and secure 
channel, a depot for that species of coal which is best for her 
steam vessels of war and transports, but one of the finest dry 
docks in the country, an abundance of cheap iron, timber, aud 
everything else that enters into the construction of a first-class 
vessel of war. 

BANKS AND BANKING. 

"While we have the same number of national and State banks 
-as in 1880, the capital of $13,333,260 indicates an increase of 



221 



$643,000 with one national bank in course of formation, with 
upwards of $1,000,000 capital. Trust companies have grown 
apace. There was in 1880 but one, with a capital of $500,000. 
During the the intervening period they have been increased to 
four, with a total capital of $2,500,000. Bank clearances have 
increased from $581,000,000 in 1885, to 753,000,000 in 1890, 
the latter figures being an increase of one hundred millions of 
dollars over those of 1889. 

Baltimore has not had a bank failure in 57 years. This 
speaks exceedingly well for the financiers of the city, and is 
a record not equalled by any city in the Union. 

The census for 1890 shows that out of an entire population 
of 434,139 souls in Baltimore, there are 116,658 men over 
twenty-one years of age, entitled to the priviledge of casting 
a vote; 91,490 men between 18 and 44 years of age, subject 
to military duty, and 112,247 children of both sects, between 
5 and 17 years of age, the period generally classed as the 
school age. The full statistics furnished are of great interest 
and are as follows : 

Population, 434,438; males, 206,114; females, 228,325; native 
born, 365,436; foreign born, 69,003 ;• white (aggregate), 367- 
143; native white, 298,567; native parents, 186,625; foreign 
parents, 111,942 ; foreign whites, 68,576 ; colored, 67,296 • 
native, 66,863 ; foreign, 427. 



Ages. 



Males. 



Females. 



Total. 



Under 1. . . 

1 to 4 

5 to 17. . . . 
18 to 44... 
45 and over 
21 and over 



4,847 
18,355 
54,759 
91,490 
36,663 
116,658 



4,720 
18,159 
57,488 

105,215 
42,743 

131,684 



9,567 

36,514 

112,247 

196,705 

79,406 

248,342 



222 



HOUSE BUILDING FOR 1891. 

But few of tlie 500,000 residents of the city of Baltimore 
realize the great increase in building which the record for the 
year 1891, presents. The year 1891, has been a marvelous one 
in the history of Baltimore advancement in the way of new 
buildings. Both the business and residence portions of the city 
have been improved by massive business blocks and handsome 
residences. This change is not confined to any particular dis 
trict, but is general throughout the city. Old structures have 
been torn down to give way to great piles of brick and stone. 
Lots that in 1891 were vacant, now are sites for new business 
houses; in the residence portion of the city a number of 
magnificent houses have been erected, and many of the subdi- 
visions that were decorated only with lot stakes in 1881, are 
completely changed by the building of hundreds of houses. 
It would be diflicult to form an accurate estimate of the aggre- 
gate sum that has been invested in new buildings in Baltimore 
in 1891, but contractors, builders and real estate operators 
place the figures at about $4,000,000. 

There were 2,137 new buildings erected during 1891, and 
560 new additions, making a total of 2,697 for the year. 

The building operations for the ten years were more active 
than in any other decade of the present century, and tlie aggre- 
gate amount of money expended during this time is far in 
excess of any previous census period. Records of the building 
departments show that from January, 1880 to January, 1891, 
there were 18,896 permits granted for new buildings and 
4,940 alterations authorized, making a total expenditure of 
$35,571,653. These figures show an annual average expendi- 
ture of over $3,500,000, or at the rate of $17,785 for each of 
the two hundred working days in each year during which such 
labor can be profitably carried on. The greatly increased cost 
is not so much from the increased number of the buildings as 
from their character and style of architecture. The new 
improvements for 1891, show an increase of 600 over the 
preceding year, and 215 over 1889, while the total increase, 
both in addition to houses already built and new buildings is 
639 over 1890, and 241 over 1889. The new buildings of the 



223 



most importance which were completed or are in the course of 
construction, and which are added to the list of improvements 
for 1801, are: The ten-story Equitable building, being erected 
by the Calvert Building and Construction Company ; the 
Fidelity and Deposit Company, eight- story building; Joseph 
M. Cone's law building, seven-story ; Jarvis and Conklin, new 
seven-story building adjacent to the Blaekstone building ; the 
Record building six stories; "The Arundel," the new apart- 
ment house, and "The Stafford," the former six stories and the 
latter nine stories high. 

The number of buildings in Baltimore are as follows: 
Churches, 364; warehouses, 5,257; stables, 5,282; dwellings, 
84,2'17 ; public schools, 147 ; total, 95,297. 

INTERESTING STATISTICS. 

Among the many other interesting facts about Baltimore, it 
may be stated that the area of the city is about 33 59-100 
squate miles, or 21,498 acres ; area of parks, 839.77 acres ; 
electric lights about 1,000 ; miles of horse railroad, doul)]e and 
single track, about 175 ; miles of electric railroad about 20 . 
miles of cable road about IS ; gross revenue of the city, 
$10,497,578.35 ; gross annual expenses, $10,418,976.22 ; annual 
department expenses, $4,125,007.18; number of liquor licenses 
issued 2,073 ; revenue from liquor licenses, $507,047.94 ; miles 
of paved streets, 780 ; miles of sewers constructed, 27.75 ; 
miles of water pipes, 407; storage capacity of reservoirs, 
2,274,000,000 gallons; average daily consumption of water, 
45,000,000 gallons; miles of gas pipe, 450 ; public gas lamps, 
6,000 ; daily capacity of gas works, 8,000,000 cubic feet ; 
annual consumption of gas, 1,150,000,000 cubic feet ; number 
of police, 800 ; appropriation for police force, $800,000 ; steam 
fire engine companies, 14; chemical engine companies, 8; hook 
and ladder companies, 6; hose carts, 28; horses, 113; number 
of men in fire department, 264 ; appropriation for fire depart- 
ment, $245,000; fire plugs, 1230; miles of fire alarm wire, 
500; total fire alarms, annually, 393; school houses, 147- 
number of teachers, 1244; number of pupils — white, 58,870 
colored, 9,298, total, 68,168 ; annual cost of school depart- 



221 



ment, $1,020,000; number of national banks, 19; capital, 
$12,313,260; surplus, $4,975,346.76; loans and discounts, 
$31,727,650.32; deposits, $29,748,822.45; number of State 
banks, 4; capital, $1,100,000 ; surplus, $583,000; bank clear- 
ances for 1891, $735,764,652 ; postal receipts for 1891, $729,- 
154.01 ; number of pieces of mail handled, 93,000,000 ; internal 
revenue collected in Maryland, $3,062,360.54 ; cost of water 
works, $10,258,039.89 ; total revenue from water rates, $602,- 
824.78 ; number of houses and warehouses receiving water 
in the city, 52,876; number of dwellings receiving water in 
the county, 1,048; number of Savings banks, 12; aggregate 
deposits in savings banks, $41,000,000 ; population to each 
square mile, 13,774.22 ; population to each acre, 21.02 ; miles 
of streets lined with shade trees, 100 ; average width of streets, 
66 feet ; average number of persons to each mile of street, 
557 • days supply of water on storage, 54 ; average charge for 
water per dwelling, $7.00 ; registered vote — white, 80,159, 
colored, 12,837— total 92,996 ; wards, 22 ; representation in 
State Senate, 3 ; representation in House of Delegates, 18 ; 
number of judges Baltimore courts, 6 ; city tax, 1891, $1.55; 
State $.17|— total $1.72|; representatives in Congress from 
Baltimore, 2 ; representatives in First Branch City Council, 
22 • representatives in Second Branch City Council, 11 ; Board 
©f Police Commissioners, 3 ; Supervisors of Elections, 3 ; 
Liquor License Commissioners, 3 ; Inspectors of Steam Boilers, 
2 • City Finance Commissioners, 3 ; Park Commissioners, 7 ; 
Appeal Tax Court, 3 ; Water Board, 7 ; Coroners, 4 ; Yaccine 
Physicians, 22 ; Harbor Board, 6 ; Harbor Masters, 6 ; Superin- 
tendents of Streets and Koads, 9 ; Commissioners for Opening 
Streets, 3; Station Houses, 7; School Commissioners, 22; 
Trustees of Bay Yiew Asylum, 7; Directors City Jail, 7; 
City Markets, 11 ; Fire Alarm Stations, ; Notaries Public, 
15 ; Business Exchanges, 15 ; City Passenger Kailway Com- 
panies, 8 ; Lines of Railway, 27 ; Dispensaries, 20 ; Hospitals 
and Infirmaries, 22 ; Cemeteries, 29. 

There is now being built a Belt line, which includes a double 
track tunnel under the city the entire distance from north to 



225 



south. It involves an expenditure of about $7,000,000, and 
will require about twelve months for its completion. 

Davelopment work now in progress, including the steel 
"works, the Belt line and tunnel, twenty miles of cable railway, 
ten or fifteen of electric line, to be followed by twenty or 
twenty-five miles more, office buildings, warehouses, factories^ 
etc., foots up about $30,000,000 or $35,000,000. 

Among the great charitable and educational institutions of 
the city endowed by rich men within recent years, are the 
Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, with an endowment 
of between $7,000,000 and $8,000,000; the Pratt Library, 
$1,000,000 ; the Peabody Library, $1,000,000 ; the McDonogh 
School, $1,000,000 ; the Thomas Wilson Sanitarium, $2,500,- 
000; the Shepherd Asylum, $1,000,000. These, of course, do 
not include large schools and other institutions such as the 
"Woman's College, recently erected by the Methodists at a cost 
of two or three hundred thousand dollars, and the school 
erected by Miss Mary Garrett at a cost probably of from 
$150,000 to $200,000, and many other similar institutions. 

ADVANTAGES OF BALTIMORE. 

The foregoing results which could be much further enume- 
rated can leave no doubt as to the future importance of this city 
as an industrial emporium. Thus it appears that the natural and 
legislative advantages afforded by this city are being recog- 
nized by those who seek a field for the investment of capital 
in manufactures. Citizens have liberally invested in new 
enterprises, and have been foremost in promoting industries al- 
ready established. More recently, attention has been attracted 
from abroad, and a number of capitalists have been drawn 
hither, who with ample means and great energy, have under- 
taken works which are destined to change the aspect of the 
localities chosen for the site of their operations, and by creat- 
ing communities of themselves add vastly to the material w^el- 
fare of the city as a manufacturing centre. Some of these 
later accessions, though they have chosen locations without the 
city limits, will tend largely to increase the wealth of the city. 
15 



226 



Among the advantages claimed by Baltimore for the ex- 
change of the raw material for the manufactured article, is the 
fact that it is a point where the Susquehanna white pine and 
hemlock, Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, and Florida yellow pine 
and cypress, the West Virginia hickory, ash, walnut and poplar, 
and the West Indian and Central American hard woods and 
veneering materials meet. In its near inexhaustible quarries 
•of fine marble, and districts where the material is unfailing 
for the production of brick, which is availed o^, and has given 
to the world the Baltimore brick, which has no equal. 

Again, there is profit in proximity to the exhaustless coal 
fields of Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the 
facilities of transportation over the Baltimore and Ohio, 
Northern Central and Western Maryland Railroads, and the 
Chesapeake and Ohio canal, which bring the article to the 
water's edge. Wood in abundance is supplied by vessels from 
the country bordering on the Chesapeake and its tributaries 
and the two Carolinas. 

These conditions substantiate the fact that this is the most 
accessible and economical seaport for fuel in the United States. 

The boundaries of the city include some tracts of unoccu- 
pied space, to be had by rental or purchase upon favorable 
terms, which are desirably located, whether by stream or river, 
on the margin of the basin or by the shore leading to the bay. 
Besides these, just beyond the corporate limits, the suburbs 
present great opportunities in streams capable of supplying 
ample power, only waiting to be utilized. In some cases, 
ground free for a term of years, is offered to those who would 
establish thereon manufactories. 

The city government has wisely exempted from taxation all 
manufacturing plant within its jurisdiction, and as the neces- 
sary expenditures in this direction often absorb two-thirds of 
capital invested, this provision, so nearly amounting upon capi- 
tal to total exemption, presents an inducement too enticing to 
be overlooked. With equal liberality, water for these purposes 
is levied for by the authorities at an almost nominal rate. 
Neither of these may be looked upon as spasmodic acts of 



227 



legislation, nor can there be in the most remote probability of 
the latter being rescinded, inasmuch as the daily supply of 170,- 
000,000 gallons of water leaves about 100,000,000 gallons avail- 
able for manufacturing purposes. 

The neighboring: soil is rich in ores and materials in constant 
requisition in certain branches of manufacture, and facilities 
for the importation of steel, copper, iron, tin, chemicals and 
raw materials are not equaled by any port on the Atlantic 
coast. Iron, limestone, slate, chrome, iron-ore, steatite, mica, 
emery, kaoline, fire-brick clays, pottery clays, sand of superior 
quality for glass manufacture — all are found in the neighbor- 
hood, some of them of unrivalled excellence. 

Surrounding conditions favorably' affect labor, which is plen- 
tiful and at reasonable wages. It is a fact, and worthy of more 
than passing mention, that within the city limits there is a roof 
for every laborer, with opportunity for establishing, each one 
for himself, that which is worthy of being called a home. 
Differing in this respect from many other cities, there is here 
no tenement system — the necessity not existing. 

"With its close proximity to the cotton, tobacco, grain and 
pork-producing sections of the country, and by means .of its 
unequaled railway service to those points and to the Northern 
lakes, Baltimore, the most northern of Southern, and the most 
southern of Northern cities, is situated, viewing its inland and 
central position, as tlie most natural market for the working up 
of raw material, and tlie distribution of the same when manu- 
factured and ready for consumption. Located at the head of 
the Mediterranean of America, as the Chesapeake Bay has not 
unaptly been termed, with a harbor approached by a broad and 
deep channel, subject to no unusual ebb and flow of tide, at 
which are hourly arriving, steamers that reach all the Atlantic 
ports, supplemented by numberless steamboats and sailing craft 
of every dimension and build that drain the shores of tribu- 
tary rivers and inlets and the foresliore of fertile lands to the 
extent of two thousand or more miles, tliese conditions, in addi- 
tion to the lines of rail from and to every point of the com- 
pass, are such as to justify the realisation pledged to the new- 



228 



comer of a hearty welcome and a fair field for operation, and 
for the manufacturing growth of the city the greatest possi- 
bilities, 

SECURE INVESTMEJfTS. 

STABILITY OF REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS VALUE AND 

CHEAPNESS OF LAND. 

The general impression among leading real estate brokers 
of this city is that the advantages of Baltimore for safe and 
profitable investments in real estate have never been taken 
advantage of. When the comparatively low price of Balti- 
more real estate is taken into consideration, many express sur- 
prise that outside capital has not been informed of the fact. 
The impression is that if the true facts were known there 
would be an influx of visitors. There are lots of vacant 
ground in East, West, South and North Baltimore, and good 
business property can be had in the central portions of the 
city, though the prices asked for it are considered good. Yet 
these prices are low when compared with other cities. 

Considering the immense advantages of Baltimore for busi- 
ness and dwelling property— the health, fine markets, libraries, 
hospitals, schools, proximity to Washington, &c. — real estate 
is lower in Baltimore than in any other city in the United 
States. This does not exempt even the growing Western 
cities, but there is an element of stability about property in 
Baltimore that makes it especially desirable as an investment. 
The Real Estate Exchange took up the matter sometime ago, 
and sent to the city council a memorial claiming that it would 
be greatly to tlie interest of the city and add to its prosperity 
if an official publication were made, setting forth the advan- 
tages of Baltimore, with the view of inducing business men 
and others to locate and encourage capitalists to invest here. 
This method the real estate men say, has been tried in other 
cities to great advantage. The memorial said : "We have at 
present no ready means of placing before non-residents the 
great advantages we possess in a fine harbor, extensive water 



229 



fronts, railroad and shipping facilities for handling grain, oys- 
ters, tobacco and other freights, abundant pure water supply, 
moderate taxes, cheap real estate, low rents, fine parks, super- 
ior markets, universities, colleges, schools, libraries, handsome 
churches, &c., which information should be placed before the 
country at large, in printed form, by the publishing of a large 
edition for free circulation by our merchants and business 
men.''' This information, which the Exchange wants, has been 
furnished to the world, through the medium of the reports of 
the Land Office, The idea is not intended to be conveyed that 
real estate in Baltimore is a drug in the market, and has to be 
boomed to be sold. Such is not the case. It is simply fully 
as valuable and much more cheaper than elsewhere, and will 
pay handsome returns to investors. 



FIRST TIIIIVGS IW BAIiTIMORE. 

A RECORD OF INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS ORIGINATING 
IN BALTIMORE. 

The following notable inventions and mechanical and other 
improvements had this city for their birthplace, and many in- 
itial acts and events of importance also occurred here. 

1757 — April 8. — The Legislature met for the first and only 
time in Baltimore, and adjourned May 9, after passing seven- 
teen important laws. 

1769 — Dr. Henry Stevenson established the first small-pox 
hospital in the United States. 

1771 — John Stevenson of Baltimore, began the shipment of 
wheat to Europe, which was the foundation of our present 
.grain trade. 

1772 — Umbrellas were first introduced in Baltimore as a 
protection from the sun and rain. They were of oiled linen 
with rattan sticks. 

1774: — Wm. CToddard,of Baltimore, first established the pres- 
ent post office system. 

1774 — Rev. William Otterbein first organized in Baltimore 
the denomination of the United Brethren in Christ. 



230 



1774 — May 27. — The committee of correspondence of Bal- 
timore first suggested a general congress of delegates from all 
the colonies. This congress assembled, and from its deliber- 
ations resulted the declaration that the colonies were free and 
independent States. 

1774 — December 3. — Mordecai Gist, a Baltimore merchant, 
organized the first military company in tlie province for the 
revolution. 

1775 — The first act of the Continental Congress for the 
formation of a navy, was promulgated on the 13th of October, 
and in the same month the continental marine committee at 
Baltimore fitted out two cruisers, the "Hornet" and "Wasp," 
to make the first essay of the American navy, 

1775 — Com. Barney hoisted the first continental flag seen in 
Maryland, upon a staff at the door of his rendezvous. 

1775 — The "Virginia," the first frigate for the continental 
navy, was built at Fell's Point by Mr. Wells, shipbuilder. 

1776 — The first Declaration of Independence was printed 
in Baltimore by Mary Katharine Goddard, on the site of the 
Sun office building, 

1776 — June 5. — Capt. James Nicholson, of Baltimore, was 
appointed by Congress the first officer in rank in the United 
States Navy. 

1776 — Dec. 20, — The Continental Congress assembled in 
Baltimore, and on the 27th first invested Gen. Washington 
with dictatorial powers. 

1777 — The Baltimore merchants were the first to fit out 
privateers with letters of marque and reprisal against the 
British, and during the revolution, 248 sailed from this port, 
being more than any other port in the colonies. 

1778 — Count Pulaski established his headquarters and orga- 
nized in Baltimore the first independent corps in the Revolu- 
tionary Army, 

1781 — The first building of brick in the United States 
erected for theatrical purposes was built in Baltimore, 

1783 — John and Andrew Ellicott invented the first mud 
machine. 



231 



1784 — Peter Carnes made the iirst balloon ascension in the 
United States from Howard's Park. 

1784 — The first application of a water-wheel on each side of 
a boat for the purposes of navigation, was exhibited in Balti- 
more by a man who propelled a large canoe from the Susque- 
hanna into the basin bj turning a crank. 

1784 — John Frederick Amelung, who established the first 
glass manufactory in the United States, on the Monocacy, 
arrived in Baltimore with a number of his workmen from 
Germany. 

1784 — December 27. — The first Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the United States was orgnized in Baltimore, and here Rev- 
Thos. Asbury was made the first bishop of the Church in 
America. 

1785 — John O'Donnell, in the ship "Pallas," was the first to 
import China goods to the United States. 

1785 — March 3. — The first agricultural society was formed 
with Harry Dorsey Gough, president, and Zebulon HolHngs- 
worth, secretary. 

1787 — The first Sunday-Schools were established by the 
members of the Methodist Church. 

1787 — Oliver Evans' steam-carriage, elevator and hopper-boy, 
were first introduced in Baltimore. His land carriage was the 
first ever propelled by steam in the world. 

1788 — The ship "Chesapeake," of Baltimore, was the first 
American vessel allowed to hoist the colors of the United 
States in the river Ganges and to trade there. 

1789 — March. — "Seven hundred of the mechanics and trades- 
men of Baltimore" were the first to petition Congress to give 
protection to American manufactures by imposing on "all 
foreign articles which could be made in America such duties as 
'would give preference to their labor." This was the origin of 
the American system of protection to home industry. 

1789 — The first general council of the Catholic clergy was 
held. 

1789 — Mr. Cruse erected the first steam saw mill near Pratt 
street wharf. 



232 



1790 — Wall paper was first introduced. 

1790 — August 15. — Rev. John Carroll, of Baltimore, who 
was appointed the first vicar-general of the Catholic Church in 
America, in 1786, was consecrated the first Catholic Bishop of 
the United States. In 1808, he was made the first archbishop. 

1791 — July 10. — Tiie first Catholic seminary in the United 
States for theological students was opened. 

1792 — The Baltimore Water Company, the first of the kind 
in the United States, was formed. 

1792 — April 1. — The doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church 
were preached for the first time by Rev. Mr. Wilmer. 

1793 — Cigars were first used in Baltimore to keep off the 
yellow fever. 

1796 — -The Charitable Marine Society, the first of its kind, 
was formed and incorporated. 

1796 — The Baltimore and Washington Turnpike was the 
first in the United States. 

1797 — (Japt. David Porter, Sr., established the first telegraph 
(semaphore) station on Federal Hill. 

1798 — The merchants of this city were the first to construct 
and equip two sloops of war, which they presented to the gov- 
ernment. They were named the "Maryland" and the " Chesa- 
peake." 

1799 — The first Sweedenborgian Church was founded in 
Baltimore by Rev. John Hargrove. 

1802 — Benjamin Henfrey, of Baltimore, first discovered a 
method of creating a light by gas from wood, and actually 
lighted Richmond, Ya., before any similar discovery was known. 

1806 — July 7. — The corner-stone of the first cathedral in the 
United States was laid in Baltimore. 

1808 — Major George Peter organized the first horse artillery 
at Fort McHenry. 

1809 — June 2. — Mrs. Eliza Ann Seaton first established the 
American Sisters of Charity in Baltimore. 

1810 — Peregrine Williamson was granted a patent for 
metallic writing pens, the first of the kind manufactured in 
the United States. 



233 



1812 — Wm. Wilson, of Baltimore, was the first man in this 
country to loan the government $50,000, to carry on the war 
with Great Britain, without interest. 

181 J — The citizens of Baltimore were the first to pledge 
''their lives and fortunes" in support of the government in 
the war against Great Britain. 

1812 — ^ Although Baltimore was frequently blockaded by the 
British fleets, she took the lead in fitting out privateers, and 
was more active and patriotic in annoying the enemy than any 
other city in the Union. 

1812 — Dr. William Gibson was the first surgeon that ever 
ligated the common iliac artery. He was the first surgeon in 
this country to perform the supra-pubic operation of lithomy. 
He performed the Caesarian operation twice upon the same 
patient, saving each time the mother and child. He was the 
first to divide the straight muscle of the eye. 

1813 — " The first marine artillery of the Union" was orga- 
nized at Fort McHenry. 

1813 — April 27. — Captain Stephen II. Moore's company of 
Baltimore volunteers was the first to enter Toronto, Canada, 
and to place the fiag presented to them by the ladies of Balti" 
more on the capitol of Upper Canada. 

1814 — The defeat of the British before Baltimore, by its 
citizen soldiers, was the first of a brilliant serifes of events in 
the war of 1812 that brought about peace. Christopher 
Hughes, Jr., of Baltimore, brought the first tidings of peace 
to the United States. 

1814 — July 4. — The corner-stone of the first monument 
erected to the meinoiy of George Washington was laid. 

1814 — September 12. — The corner-stone of the first and 
only monument erected to the memory of the heroes of the 
war of 1812 was laid. 

1814 — September 13. — Francis S. Key, "amid the rocket's 
red glarej bombs bursting in air," composed "The Star- 
Spangled Banner," our national anthem. It is descriptive of 
the scenes he witnessed in the harbor of Baltimore and of his 
own excited feelino;s. 



234 



1814 — Samuel Sands was the tirst printer to put "The Star- 
Spangled Banner" in type. It was first published in The 
Baltimore American. 

1814 — October 19. — Mr. Hardinge sung the " Star- Spangled 
Banner " for the first time in public at the HoUiday Street 
Theatre. 

1815 — Tlie first shipment of petroleum in bulk was made 
from Yenango county, Pa., to Baltimore, but on account of its 
bad smell, was emptied into the basin. 

1816 — June 11, — "Carburetted hydrogen gas" was first 
exhibited at Peale's Museum, (afterwards old City Ilall,) HoUi- 
day street. 

1816— June 17.— "The Gas Light Company of Baltimore" 
was the first company organized in the United States to manu- 
facture gas for street and general use. 

1816 — September 20. — George Elliott, of Baltimore, was 
the first to roll bar iron edgeways. 

1817 — John ]N"eal, the author, while residing in Baltimore, 
published his first novel. 

1819 — February 23. — Francis Guy, of Baltimore, made the 
first paper carpet, which was really the first step in making oil- 
cloth. 

1819 — April 2. — John S. Skinner first published the Ameri- 
can Farmer, the pioneer agricultural paper in the United States. 

1819— April 26.— The first lodge of Odd-Fellows in the 
United States was formed in this city by Thomas Wildey and 
others. 

1819 — July 18. — Ebenezer French issued the first Sunday 
paper published in the United States. 

1820 — Dr. Horatio Gates JJimeson was the first surgeon in 
this country to. attempt the operation of ovariotomy, and the 
first in the world to amputate the cervixuteri for scirrhus. 

1820 — The first theatre in the United States lighted by gas 
was the "Belvedere," or "Old Mud" Theatre, whicK formerly 
stood at the northwest corner of North and Saratoga streets. 

1821— February 22nd— The first Grand Lodge of Odd- 
Fellows of the United States was organized. 



235 



1826 — Mr. Beachara, of Baltimore, built the first 64-guii 
ship in the United States for the Brazilian Government. 

1826 — The Hebrews first became freemen of Maryland. 
In October Solpmon Etting and Joshua L Cohen were the 
first Hebrews elected bj the people to ofKce. 

1827 — February 28. — The first railroad act of incorporation- 
granted by any State in the Union, was granted by Maryland 
to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. 

1827— April 24.— The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- 
pany was the first railroad company organized in the United 
States. 

1828 — The Methodist Protestant denomination was first 
founded. 

1828 — Ross Winans first invented "the outside bearing" to 
railroad carriages, which is now the only bearing used through- 
out the world. 

1828— December 10. — The first American patent for a loco- 
motive, was taken out by Wm. Howard, of Baltimore. 

1829 — The first silk ribbons made from American silk were 
made in Baltimore. 

1829— The "Oblate Sisters of Providence," a colored order 
of women, was first founded in Baltimore. 

1829 — March 20. — The city council passed tlie first registry 
law for voters. 

1829 — June 5. — The Sisters of Providence, the first relig- 
ious society of Catholic colored women, established the first 
school for colored girls in Baltimore. 

1829— October 1. — The first Catholic provincial council 
held in the United States met in Baltimore. 

1830 — January. — The first car ever propelled by a sail was 
run on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

1830— August 28.— Peter Cooper made the first journey in 
America by steam car, from Baltimore City to Ellicott's Mills 
and return. This distance — thirteen miles — was made in 57 
minutes. 

1831— April 26.— The first building erected in America by 
the Odd-Fellows, was dedicated in Baltimore. 



236 



1831 — September 26. — Tlie first anti-Masonic convention 
and the first national convention for the nomination of a 
President and Vice-President, assembled in Baltimore, and 
Wm. "Wirt of this city, was nominated for Pi-esident, and 
Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for Yice-President, 

1831 — December 12. — The first national republican or whig 
convention assembled in Baltimore, and nominated Henry 
Clay for President and John Sergeant for Yice-President. 

1832 — Baltimore was the first city in the Union to import 
guano. 

1832 — May 21. — The first democratic national convention was 
held in Baltimore and nominated Gen. Jackson for re-election 
as President. Martin Yan Buren was nominated for Yice- 
President. 

1833 — The improved Order of Red Men was first founded 
in Baltimore.' 

1833 — John S. Clark, who was born in Baltimore, made his 
first appearance at the Howard Atlienceum. 

1838 — May 20 — The first regular steam vessel that crossed 
the Atlantic from the United States direct, was the steam 
packet "City of Kingston," Capt Crame, which steamed from 
Baltimore. 

1838 — Dec. 11. — The first National«Silk Society was formed. 

1839 — The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery was in- 
corporated, being the first in the world. 

1840 — The first temperance society was formed. 

1844 — The first electro-magnetic recording telegraph line 
in the United States was establislied by Prof. Morse, between 
"Washington and Baltimore. The first experiment was made 
April 9, and the line completed May 24. 

1844 — The Sun was the first newspaper in the world to make 
use of the electric telegraph. 

1846 — May 11. — The first presidential message ever trans- 
mitted by telegraph was exclusively sent to the Sun. 

1847 — The Baltimore battalion planted the first American 
flag on the walls of Monterey, in the war with Mexico. 



237 



1848— November. — George B. Simpson exhibited in Baltf- 
more the successful submarine telegraph, the one now in prac- 
tical use by all telegraph companies. 

1850 — The Catholic order of the Kedemptorists was first 
established in the United States, at Baltimore. 

1850— May. — The Independent Order of Red Men of the 
United States, was first organized in Baltimore. 

1852 — The Sun Iron Building was the first cast-iron build- 
ing in Maryland, and the first iron newspaper building in the 
world. 

1852 — May. — The first Plenary Council of the Catholic 
Church in the United States was held in Baltimore. 

1853 — January 1. — At this time the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad was the longest in the world. 

1853 — The first Hoe type-revolving cylinder presses sue" 
cessfully used in the United States were introduced in the Sun 
building. 

1856 — The first locomotive run by electricity, was used on 
the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

1858 — December 9. — Baltimore adopted the first paid fire 
department. 

1859 — The first " cigar ship " in the world was made by 
Thomas Winans, of Baltimore. 

1860 — May 8. — The first national constitutional Union party 
convention was held in Baltimore, and nominated John Bell, 
of Tennessee, for preside'nt, and Edward Everett, of Massachu- 
setts, for vice-president. 

1860 — June 18. — The first split in a national democratic 
convention took place in Baltimore on the 22d of June, and 
on the following day the seceders nominated John C. Brecken^ 
ridge their candidate for president, and Joseph Lane for vice- 
president. The regular convention nominated Stephen A. 
Douglas for president. 

1861— April 19. — The first bloodshed in the late civil war 
took place in the attack on the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment 
by the citizens of Baltimore, when four soldiers and twelve 
citizens were killed. 

1862 — The Independent Methodist denomination was first 
formed. 



238 



1862 — Horace Abbott, at the Canton Iron Works, rolled tlie 
iron armor plates for the turrett of the first "Monitor" built 
in the United States. 

1865 — The first Southern Agricultural Aid Society was 
formed. 

1865 — July 31. — The first monument erected to commemo- 
rate the memory of John McDonogh was dedicated. 

1865 — September 20. — The first monument erected to the 
memory of Thomas Wildey, the founder of the order of Odd- 
Fellows in the United States, was dedicated. 

1866 — The first Southern Relief Association was organized 
by the ladies of Baltimore. They distributed over $164,569, 
besides the appropriation of $100,000 contributed by the 
Legislature. 

1867 — November 27. — The order of the Knights of Pythias 
was instituted in Baltimore, when "Golden Lodge, No. 1," and 
"Monumental Lodge, No. 2," were organized. 

1875 — November 1. — The first monument erected to com- 
memorate the memory of Edgar Allen Poe was dedicated. 

-[377 — July 20. — The first blood shed in the great railroad 
strike took place in Baltimore, when 10 persons were killed 
and about 25 wounded by the Sixth Regiment militia firing on 
the crowd. 

1881 — June 23. — The discovery of the comet of 1881, was 
first published in The Sun, in advance of any paper in the 
world. 

1886 — June 30 — Archbishop James Gibbons was made Car- 
dinal by Leo XIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Lincoln, 
made his debut in Baltimore as Richmond, in " Richard the 
Third" in the Howard Athenaeum. His remains are buried 
in Greenmount Cemetery. 

Mr. Horace Abbott, at the Canton Iron Works, forged the 
first large steamship shaft ever wrought in this country. It 
was made for the Russian frigate Kamtschatka, and such was 
the interest manifested in it, that it was exhibited at the 
Exchange in New York. 



239 



The first steam engine in this country, with the wheels 
coupled by a double pair of drivers, was used on the I*altiraore 
and Ohio Railroad by Phineas Davis, the inventor. 

To Baltimore belongs the proud distinction of being the 
birthplace of the first German singing society in the United 
States. In the latter part of 1835, Rev. Henry Scheib came 
to Baltimore and took an active part in the formation of a 
singing society which, about a year later, on December 30, 
1836, took unto itself a name and habitation as the " Baltimore 
Liederkranz." 

Ross Winans planned the first eight-wheeled car ever built 
for passenger purposes. It was used on the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad and called the " Columbus." 

James McPIenry, a Baltimore merchant, secretary to "Wash- 
ington during the revolution, first Secretary of "War, and after 
whom Fort McHenry is named, established the U. S. military 
academy at "West Point. 

Capt. Edward K. Cooper, of Baltimore, was the first dis- 
coverer of Navassa Island. 

The first "wagon brakes" in this country were introduced by 
the Ellicotts. 

Dr. John Beale Davidge was the first surgeon in tlie United 
States who tied the gluteal artery for the cure of aneurism. 
He was also the originator of the "American plan of ampu- 
tation." 

Prof. Nathan R. Smith first invented in Baltimore his litho- 
tome and his anterior splint. 

Horatio N. Gambrill invented the self-stripping cotton card. 

CATHOLIC COUNCILS IN BALTIMORE. 

Thirteen grand councils of ^bishops have been held at the 
Cathedral, in Baltimore, of which, ten were "Provincial" and 
three "Plenary." The former are always attended by the 
bishops of a province ; the latter by the entire hierarchy of the 
United States. 

First Provincial Council, October 1, 1829, under Archbishop 
"Whitfield's direction. 

Second, October, 1833, under the same Archbishop. 



24^D 



Third. May. 1837, nnder Archbishop Eccleston. 

rourth, May. 1S4<J. nnder same Archbishop. 

Fifth. May. 1S43. nnder same Archbishop. 

Sixth, May. 1S4^. nnder same Archbishop. 

Seventh. May, 1S49, nnder same Archbishop. 

Eighth. May. 1S55. nnder the direcrlon of Archbishop Ken- 
rick. 

Xinth, May, 1855. nnder same Archbishop. 

Tenth, May, 1869, nnder the direction of Archbishop 
Spalding. 

First Plenary CotmciL May, 1S49, nnder the direction of 
Archbishop Eccleston. ' 

Second. October, 1S66, imder the direction of Archbishop 
Spalding. 

Third. November, 1SS4, imder the direction of Archbishop 
Gibbons. 

Cotton dnck was first nsed for the sails of vessels in this city. 
It was mannfactnred at the mills of C. Crook Jr., dr Bro., 
erected in 1810. The first vessels fitted with sails froml^these 
mills, were the property of Isaac McEim, one of Baltimore's 
enterprising merchants. 

The first oil-cloth works in this conntry were established in 
1820, on High street near Baltimore, They were afterwards 
located at the comer of Pratt street and Broadway, and were 
afterwards destroyed by fire in 1S50. 

The first tower in this country for the mannfactnre of drop- 
shot, was bnilt in Baltimore. There were three of them — one 
on Gay street, next to the German Chnrch, erected in 1S22, 
and taken down in 1S44 ; one at the comer of Fayette and 
Front streets, bnilt in 1S28, and still standing, the comer stone 
of which was laid by Charles Carroll of Carrollton ; and one 
on Eutaw street, between Camden and Conway, which was 
taken down when Camden Station was built. 

Steam was first nsed for cooking and heating purposes in 
this country, in Baltimore, by C. ^. Bentley, about 1S37. 

The first adamantine candles were made in this city in 1S41, 
at the Adamantine Candle Works of Hancock *i: Mann, at 
Canton. 



